
NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | August 10, 2017 |
Latest Amendment Date: | April 24, 2018 |
Award Number: | 1737583 |
Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
Program Manager: |
Sara Kiesler
skiesler@nsf.gov (703)292-8643 CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
Start Date: | September 1, 2017 |
End Date: | August 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $99,408.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $99,408.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
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History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
220 PAWTUCKET ST STE 400 LOWELL MA US 01854-3573 (978)934-4170 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
One University Avenue Lowell MA US 01854-2827 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): | S&CC: Smart & Connected Commun |
Primary Program Source: |
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Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this project is to plan the design of next generation probation and parole supervision technology. The goal is to develop a blueprint for BEACON (Behavioral Economics Application with Correctional Opportunities Notifications), which is intended to serve as a community-based offender supervision system that will leverage advances in smartphone-based behavior sensing and predictive analytics, and integrate them with evidence-based correctional treatment and supervision practices to reduce recidivism of criminal offenders being reintegrated into the community. BEACON advances community supervision capabilities by promoting offender change rather than control alone and provides efficient and effective support to enhance offender reintegration opportunities.
The plan involves direct engagement of stakeholders from the local criminal justice community to explore both the technical feasibility and functional desirability of the new technology from multiple perspectives, including correctional departments, probation officers, offenders, and service providers. The technical innovations adapted for the BEACON system include low-power smartphone sensing system that captures multi-dimensional behavioral signals and predictive learning algorithms that generate prompts to nudge offenders into appropriate behavioral adherence. When integrated with insights from advances in correctional treatment practices and behavior change theories for probationers and parolees, a comprehensive, interdisciplinary supervision system emerges that offers considerable rehabilitative value and promotes community safety. The results of the project will provide insights and guidelines on how to deploy advanced mobile technologies to the target community, which serves as a foundation for the design, development, and deployment of the BEACON system in the near future.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The goal of this project is to develop a blueprint for the next generation community supervision capabilities for justice-involved criminal offenders. The plan was to design BEACON (Behavioral Economics Application with Correctional Opportunities Notifications), which is a supervision system that that seeks to leverage advances in Smartphone-based behavior sensing and predictive analytics and integrate them with prevention focused supervision practices to reduce recidivism in two ways. The first is by expanding capacity to supervise probationers in the community using a model that promotes offender change rather than just control. Second is by providing case management support that will enhance offender reintegration opportunities, as well as facilitate efficient and effective use of service providers in the community.
This project is intended to improve public safety by improving the rates of probationer compliance with court ordered conditions of supervision. Key objectives are to: 1) discuss the contemporary theoretical and evidence-based foundations informing the probation supervision philosophy that underpins the BEACON design; 2) describe how Smartphone based technology can support that philosophy by reducing non-compliance; 3) gauge the response to the BEACON model by the criminal justice community; and 4) and present the blueprint for functional design of the BEACON system.
Stakeholders from the local criminal justice community were directly involved in exploring both the functional desirability and technical feasibility of the proposed BEACON technology. Understanding how this technology can support probationers from the viewpoint of professionals who work with or come into contact with probationers is essential to the successful development and implementation of BEACON. Offering opportunities for all stakeholders to provide feedback in the course of developing the system not only provides a means to validate our assumptions about the technology potential, but also offers practitioners a sense of ownership and brings legitimacy to the BEACON technology. It is our position that that these conditions are essential if stakeholders are to have buy in should the project move to an implementation stage.
We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews and focus groups with probation officers, probation and parole supervisors, police, treatment providers and those who have served a probation sentence. Interview questions were designed to gather information on what participants believed to be the biggest challenges to offender compliance; how information regarding probationer progress is currently shared in the case management system, their reactions to the idea of bolstering the capacity for supportive communication and positive reinforcement to the supervision work, and their impressions about using Smartphone technology to manage supervision tasks.
Informed by the interview findings, we designed a blueprint draft and presented it to stakeholders that included persons we interviewed. The draft was well received and generated further discussion around implementation. Although there was enthusiasm about the value of BEACON technology as a preventive approach to supervision, probation personnel and treatment providers emphasized that new technology applications should not be considered as alternatives to face to face contact between probation officers and probationers.
In recognizing face to face contact as a central tenet of supervision, we designed the technology to serve in a supportive capacity to assist probation officers, who must manage heavy caseloads, by increasing opportunities for positive messaging with little effort, and identifying those that may be in need of additional support in a timely fashion. To keep this perspective at the forefront of the project, we have expanded the original name of the BEACON system to BEACON SUPERVISION ASSISTANT, a name much more fitting to the final blueprint and our approach to the design given the results of the interviews and the response by reviewers of our draft blueprint.
The BEACON SUPERVISION ASSISTANT features included in the blueprint are intended to promote time management by providing reminders for time-related obligations, improve compliance through routine positive reinforcement for positive behavior, provide awareness of potential distress signals, and sustain probationer success through connection to treatment services.
Last Modified: 11/06/2018
Modified by: April Pattavina
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