Jailbrake

Each year around a hundred thousand 15-17 year olds get caught up in the criminal justice system. Once they come into contact with this system, many are likely to re-offend; to remain part of it and to go on to become part of the adult criminal justice system.

Simple web and mobile tools are great at connecting people in new ways and on their own terms. They can empower people to take more control of their lives by providing new ways of organising, mobilising and communicating.

Young people are early adopters and this technology provides a way of reaching people who previously were hard to access.

Let's make the most of it.

Jailbrake is a competition to find and support great ideas that could break the cycle of youth offending using simple web and mobile tools. Whether that's about helping more young people access services and support, or giving them a way of staying safe.

We're looking for people who have an idea about how to slow down and stop the cycle of youth offending - whether you're part of a youth offending team, a service user, police officer or a member of a local community - with people who can make their ideas idea a reality.

We want to find the best ideas and turn them into real projects with a helping hand from software developers, designers and funders.

Jailbrake is run by the team behind Social Innovation Camp and powered by NESTA.

What's next

Jailbrake tested a new way of creating a market for innovation in public services, in this case, for using new web/mobile based services to reduce youth offending. Working with Social Innovation Camp, we issued an open call for ideas to reduce youth offending and re-offending through the use of simple web and mobile tools. Six ideas were chosen to be developed into prototype projects over the course of a weekend. We brought together service users, front line workers and commissioners in youth justice together with web developers and designers in order to work on the ideas. After the weekend, the ideas were offered support from NESTA to connect with potential commissioners.

Currently one idea, Safer Ground is piloting and two more are being developed. If you are interested in finding out more about any of the ideas outlined then please contact alice.casey@nesta.org.uk.