A Friendly Face: Video conferencing using Skype to keep in touch with children in custody

At 18, going off to college was exciting but it was also pretty scary. A new town 200 miles from home. A bed in unseen university accommodation. New people to meet from all over the country. A new set of rules and routines never experienced before. My dad's car packed with reminders of home - posters, photographs, possessions and presents given by relatives for this new stage in my life.

My family tried to make the transition from home to college as gentle as they could. They understood our attachment now had to stretch halfway across the country; to help me feel as safe in my new environment as I did at home. Even though we joked about the bin liners of washing that accompanied me along the Heart of Wales line back to Cheshire, mum and I knew the frequent trips home were more about easing me gently into my new life, rather than my delight in the smell of freshly laundered clothes.

Gradually and comfortably, my new identity as a student and independent householder took over from that of a schoolboy and son; but always in the knowledge that whenever there was a crisis or even just a yearning for mum's stew, I could hop on a slow train home.

Contrast this with the shock of being a 16 year old in prison for the first time. All the fear, none of the excitement. Cut off from family and friends. A very different journey in a cellular vehicle. No choice about what you take with you, no mum, no dad, no reminders of home. No way to go back and see familiar faces.

Quite right, you may think. They deserve to be punished.

But apart from the punishment they get at the hands of the state - because simple deprivation of liberty is a punishment, no matter what nonsense you may hear about prison being a cushy option - the majority of the young people we see behind bars have already been punished by the hand life has dealt them.

A comfortable and stable home life does not generally pave the way to prison. Our young people tend to come from backgrounds of poverty, deprivation and a context where even the best and most earnest parenting struggles to make headway. Often, though, they've suffered abuse, neglect and trauma. But because they lack attachment, they crave stability. So they miss their friends and families deeply. Being removed from them just increases anxiety and deepens alienation.

When I joined the YJB in 2005 there was an average of 151 young people from Wales in custody, last year it was just 42 (click to Tweet). Thanks to these huge reductions in numbers, we've decommissioned many units. While it's great that we've been able to do this, it does mean when we place young people in custody we have limited options. Young people are often placed a long way from home; usually because there's no local facility but also, we try to match children to places that have the best chance of meeting their needs.

But this does make it harder and harder for families, as well as support workers to visit. Although most are placed within about 50 miles from home - and that's not exactly round the corner - it's not uncommon for young people to be placed upwards of 200 miles away. Even when secure units are relatively close by, it takes a chunk of time to go through security processes and gain entry. So a round trip of twenty miles can easily turn into a half day commitment for a parent or a worker who may need to see a child for just a 30 minute check in.

Good for HRH Wales, good for Welsh kids inside

These days, when our kids go away travelling far from home, how do we keep in touch? Increasingly, we turn to social media and technology like FaceTime, Hangouts or Skype. It means that even though our children are far away we can see their faces, hear their voices and feel they're closer at hand. Well, if it makes sense for us, what aout the parents and carers of children in custody. Simple eh?

Not so simple.

It started well. We checked there was Ministerial support for this kind of thing - there was!

We got in touch with our providers at Parc YOI where there's a 64 bed unit for young people under 18 and asked if they'd be up for trying this out. Sure, they said, that would be really good - particularly for the English boys; their families and workers really struggle with distance.

Next, we asked if colleagues from the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice and Swansea University would help us measure success. Absolutely! In fact, they had a post-graduate looking for a dissertation topic and this would be ideal. As they always are, our academic friends were very focused on making sure we had a tight specification and sharp 'research question'.

So, we thought we had a pretty robust plan.

You may recall that the Prime Minister recently bemoaned the welter of security rules that prison governors have to contend with. If, as he said, there are rules that govern how many pairs of underpants a prisoner can have - imagine what we faced when we suggested Skype might be a good idea.

The first excuse - sorry, reason - from the opposition was that this was a huge security threat. Conversations went something like this:

Guardian of Security: What if they planned a breakout?

Us: That could happen on a phone now, but we'll make sure the call's monitored.

GoS: The connection wouldn't be secure - the encryption's not strong enough.

Us: Phone connections aren't encrypted at all, you don't mind that.

GoS: How will we know the person on the other end is who they say they are?

Us: Isn't that harder to know on a phone call? After all, at least we'll see them. Anyway, we told you they'll have to show ID on the screen.

GoS: What if the person on the other end does something inappropriate?

Us: Er . . . OK . . . You do realise they'll just be talking to their families and workers, right? Anyway, we did tell you there'll be an officer monitoring the calls. they can switch it off if it gets too steamy!

GoS: What if parents just use this instead of doing proper visits?

Us: Now you're worried about welfare? Really? OK, we don't think that'll happen, but this is a test, so we'll have to see won't we?

Minister: Just go away and get on with it!

So away we went and get on with it we did. The staff in Parc set up the equipment and we helped with information for the young people, staff and families. Time to wait for the requests to come rolling in.

Except they didn't. 

It seems even young people, for all their flexibility, adaptability and spirit of adventure need a prod to try something new. And then there were the YOT staff who needed to be persuaded. And once they were persuaded, lots of them had to re-run various versions of our battle of wills with their IT departments who had even more security concerns than at our end!

Finally though, after a few focus groups with the young people and encouraging conversations with senior local authority folk, the first calls happened. And straight away we started to see what we in the trade call benefits.

20 minutes on Skype or a day in the car? You decide . . .

Let's start with practitioners. The time and cost savings for YOT staff and allied professionals for routine visits were immediatley obvious. One practitioner I've spoken to was close to joyful when she told me how much of a busy working day she won back; just by being able to spend 20 minutes on Skype to check in with a boy rather than half a day in her car. Another, a careers worker, told us how much of a head start another young man had when he was released because they'd already met on Skype. It made such a difference when the lad recognised a friendly face at his first appointment outside. 

However, some of the most meaningful and potentially beneficial contacts, in terms of maintaining attachment, have been with families.

There was the boy who hadn't seen his mum for nearly a year because she was in a care home following illness. A member of my staff (yes the YJB works with real people now and then) met up with Dad on the community end, to show him how to set up a Skype account and accompany him into the home so there could be a tearful reunion via tablet. On the Parc end, the fantastic and tenacious Skype champion Wayne made sure there was someone on hand to deal with any emotional fallout.

Another lad hadn't been able to see his young relatives because, understandably, the family didn't want to expose them to the prison environment on a physical visit. And in any case, he didn't want them to know he wasn't really 'working away'.

Another was able to have a virtual tour of the new house his mum had moved to while he was inside. Knowing what his new bedroom 188 miles away would look like when he got out must have gone a long way to reducing the pre-release nerves young people tell us they get when they're due to come out.

So, at the end of our pilot there have been enough calls to know that there's an appetite for more. There have been no security breaches. The calls have not replaced in-person visits - they've added to them. 

The evaluation interviews with participants show that the service is valued by practitioners, families and young people. The secure unit is keen to continue and we're keen to roll out across the rest of the estate. 

Most importantly we've been able to help preserve an emotional attachment between some very vulnerable children and the people who need to be there to help them stay away from trouble 'on the out'.

There have been challenges along the way - some technical glitches when wifi signals have been a bit weak on the external end - but the biggest obstacle has been preconceptions about security. These can be overcome though. We've since found out there's a similar set up - the Juvenile Justice Video Conferencing Program in California's Santa Clara Superior Court. And, after all, I guess there were some pretty heated discussions about the introduction of the telephones into our prisons a few generations ago but we got there in the end.