Work: Currently a Design Manager at Meta.

Education: Currently a Ph.D. student in Design at Carnegie Mellon University. I earned a Master's in Strategic Design & Management from Parsons School of Design. I also earned a BS in Entrepreneurship and a BA in International Studies from the University of Utah.

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US
Incareceration

The Challenge

How might we identify leverage points to inject equity into the prison system in America?

The Insight

Collaborated with Theo Walcot from my graduate program at Parsons School of Design through a design research process to understand the effects on the stakeholders of the system.

The Solution

Through ethnographic research and design research, we identified leverage points within the system to intervene. We further identified the challenges presented by capitalism through the privatized incarceration system in America.

Date

October - November 2019

Role : Design Researcher

  • System Researcher
  • System Design
  • Strategic Sensemaking
Project Summary

The Prison Policy Initiative estimated that in 2019 2.3 million Americans were incarcerated which is more than any other nation in the world. Incarceration in the United States disproportionately affects black and Hispanic citizens: according to the last census in 2010, Adult Hispanic males were incarcerated at the rate of 1755 inmates per 100,000 US residents. Adult black non-Hispanic males were incarcerated at the rate of 4347 inmates per 100,000 US residents. Adult white males, on the other hand, were incarcerated at the rate of 678 inmates per 100,000.
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In our early research, we found out that the rise of incarceration and prison cells in America is directly correlated to capitalism, specifically the rise of private prisons. With this insight, we formed our first research question and performed challenge mapping.
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The team’s exploration of equitable capitalism eventually led us to focus on privatization within the prison system. When asking, “how might we inject equity into a capitalistic system?” our exercise drew attention toward “privatization” as both an opportunity and an obstacle in making the system more equitable.
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Through several days of challenge mapping, we hypothesized how privatization has become an opportunity and an obstacle in the prison system. The privatization of prisons creates job opportunities for a community and per-facility population levels can be lowered so prisoners can experience a better quality of life. However, privatization has increased lobbying legislative bodies to change how laws are implemented by asking for new laws and longer standard sentencing guidelines. It is often a vehicle for exploitation since for-profit companies need prisoners to make money off of their prisons.
Take-Two: Challenge Mapping

With our insights from the last session, we formulated our new research question: How might we improve the conditions within the incarceration system?
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represent obstacles to improving prison conditions
represent obstacles to improving prison conditions
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We chose to explore two ideas regarding improving conditions within the system. The treatment of inmates (conditions within the system) and perception (outside perception of the system).

Understanding the system

Stock and Flow Diagram

In our stock and flow system diagram, we illustrated the movement of prisoners within the prison system and society: as prisoners eventually leave, they carry their records with them. Due to failure to prepare them for re-entry, former inmates often return and cycle back through the system.
The incarceration system is in a causal loop. Prisoners enter prisons from outside systems; when they leave, they enter the wider system. Prisons are affected by outside systems, and perceptions of prison differ whether inside or outside.
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Intake process journey map for detention facility In Newark, New Jersey

We mapped the movement of prison workers from the time they arrive to begin their shifts until the time they leave.
We also mapped the intake process inmates follow from the time they enter the facility until they reach their cells
Intake process journey map for detention facility In Newark, New Jersey

We mapped the movement of prison workers from the time they arrive to begin their shifts until the time they leave.
We also mapped the intake process inmates follow from the time they enter the facility until they reach their cells
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Intake process journey map for detention facility In Newark, New Jersey

We mapped the movement of prison workers from the time they arrive to begin their shifts until the time they leave.
We also mapped the intake process inmates follow from the time they enter the facility until they reach their cells
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System Tree
With both worker and prisoner’s paths through the prison now mapped, we used a system tree to visualize the causes of crime (the roots of the tree) and the effects (the branches and leaves).
System Tree
With both worker and prisoner’s paths through the prison now mapped, we used a system tree to visualize the causes of crime (the roots of the tree) and the effects (the branches and leaves).
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Documentary 1: 13th Amendment 1
Not everyone goes to trial. If every single person had a trial, the entire system would shut down. Incarceration often comes down to public defenders giving options like this: you can take this plea deal and go to jail for three years, or you can go to trial and go to jail for 30 years if you lose. As a result, 97% of people do not go to trial and instead take a plea bargain.
Prison in 12 Landscapes
The film depicts people paying huge fines for minor offenses, and the effects of mass incarceration on communities across the country. The film weaves a portrait of a culture where jail time is part of normal life.
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Ecosystem Map

Culture, Social, Geography & Infrastructure

2.3 million incarcerated in the United States - most of any nation in the world.

Resource Providers

Financial
private correctional facilities, Govt

Human
Inmates, officers, public defendants, medical, families, lawyers

Knowledge
GEO Group, Department of Justice

Networking
Sentencing Project, Prison Gerrymandering project, NAACP Criminal Justice program, Women in prison Project

Political & Administrative

Predatory policies, war on drugs, war on crimes

Competitors

Capitalistic Private Sectors

Your Big Idea

HMW improves the conditions within the incarceration system?

Key Partners

Complementary Organization/ Allies

Complementary Organization/ Allies
Inmates, Staff workers, and Correctional officers

Economics & Markets

Infrastructure concerns regarding space, overworked correctional workers and public defendants

Wider System Influence

Department of Justice, GEO group, CCA

Beneficiaries

Inmates, families of inmates, cities

Barriers / Opponents

Predatory policies, politics, lawyers, correctional officers

To improve food conditions within the jail system

To enable people who are out of the system to have sustainable income that limits the chance of re-entry into the jail system

Impact

To enable outside emotional and psychological engagement within incarceration facilities to improve the individual holistically during their sentence.

Stakeholder interview #1

We interviewed former inmates to understand their interaction with the system. They mentioned their increase in feelings of fear or intimidation. Food is spartan and poor quality, they receive inhumane treatment by officers, and experience the pain of idleness. They said they badly need family support while they are in the system. We paid close attention to the language they used.
Process In
We mapped the process of prisoners as they enter prison, from the bus that brings them to the gates, through the intake process, ending at the cell. This time, we included details that affect a prisoner’s mental and emotional state. For example, whether an intake officer is beginning or ending a shift influences their attitude toward the prisoner (whether calm or easily aggravated).
Process Out
Next, we mapped the process taken by prisoners leaving. After notification, prisoners return to their cells and pack before being removed for paperwork and release. We considered the thoughts and feelings of prisoners; much depends on the conditions within the prison (harsh and hostile). We also considered their conditions outside: did they return to families? Were they equipped to support themselves? What stigmas did they now carry?
Interview # 2 : Correctional officer
Former Correctional Officer
We interviewed a former correctional officer for their reflections and discoveries about the prison system. They talked about how their path to the career was chosen because it seems like a low barrier to entry. After a few years, the work required a level of adaptation to become and think like them which causes anxieties every day. The officer mentioned the level of corruption among staff members that hinders improvement and what struck me was that at some point they start behaving like the prisons because of the long hours they are in the facility without rotations.
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Insight generations : The Use of Vocab in the System
During our interviews, we started noticing how language plays a role in the system. Those connected to the prison system use different language to describe its function. For example, executives call prisons “correctional facilities” -- a softer term, which also implies that prisons exist to correct behavior. In contrast, those who work within the system and see how it functions use the term “prison;” they see no correctional element in reality. The system breaks people and greatly increases the likelihood of their return.
Choreography of the Handcuffs
Prisoners’ wrists are locked within handcuffs. Once the handcuff circle is closed on the wrist, it can only be closed more tightly. A prisoner cannot increase the size of the circle with any amount of effort. It can only be opened with a key. Recidivism is like a pair of handcuffs that can only be made tighter. Once a person has been incarcerated, their likelihood of avoiding prison in the future becomes smaller and smaller. Prisoners are often locked into looping processes of recidivism; former prisoners carry a stigma and remain closely chained to their prison past even if they are never sentenced again.
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Wheel of Reasoning
These tools help us narrate the events that happened to one of our prisoners we interviewed from his first crisis moment. We traced it back to larger system issues in which the system failed him and the effects it had on his life.
Iterative Process
Through whiteboarding and interviews, we explored the system in detail, created feedback loops to evaluate our understanding and development, talked to stakeholders within the system, and explored the system from many angles.
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Feedback Loop
Understanding and exploring the prison process was complex. We followed many steps: finding and reaching out to people to talk to, analyzing their words, brainstorming, researching, and diagramming. We needed a strong feedback loop to challenge our assumptions and direction.
Feedback Loop
Understanding and exploring the prison process was complex. We followed many steps: finding and reaching out to people to talk to, analyzing their words, brainstorming, researching, and diagramming. We needed a strong feedback loop to challenge our assumptions and direction.
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Making Connections and Identifying Leverage Points

As a person is incarcerated, there is an entire system at play throughout the whole process. Incarceration affects the prisoners and their families, judges, workers, employers. There is a hidden nature in the whole incarceration system that even the workers and prisoners are reluctant to be interviewed and talk about their experiences. Other themes that stood out in our process were fear of unknown, loyalty, belonging, adaptation and survival. We examined how the system imprinted thoughts, attitudes, and patterns on those who interacted with it from within, and how perceptions of prison and prisoners sometimes differed from the reality inside. We saw themes like culture, values, psychology, perspective, fear, and location all play major roles in the system.

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Inputs

Business training

Support platform for out-processed inmates’ businesses

Activities

New avenues to connect investors and prisoners with business ideas

Outputs

Prisoners have what they need to start businesses effectively

Theory of Change
Exiting prisoners are not equipped to ensure they do not return; ideally, in the long run, prisons would be transformed to equip prisoners to legally meet their own needs.

Outcomews / Impact

Prisoners equipped to create their income


Prisoners equipped to be their bosses


The cycle of recidivism broken

Theory of Change
Exiting prisoners are not equipped to ensure they do not return; ideally, in the long run, prisons would be transformed to equip prisoners to legally meet their own needs.
Summary
Many workers and prisons we talked to wanted to minimize or conceal their relationship to the system. Prison workers and prisoners alike experience shame in their connection to the prison system. Former prison workers, prisoners, family members we talked with asked to remain anonymous. Because of this, we lots of rejections with conducting in-person interviews. We struggled to find people willing to speak with us, making the process difficult but the ones that did gave us the holistic insights to continue with this research topic.
We also made some pivots along the way in changing the interview structure whether it be voice calls or filming individuals from shoulder down as they prefer their face not to be in it. We realized a pattern of common throughout this process between the staff and inmates- that the prison system is not a correctional system but a system design to break people. It takes an entire system of family members and community members to help re-entry and if design solutions are not implemented in prison, more people come out more scared than they were when they entered.
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