The effort to reduce the nation’s alarming rate of recidivism, fueled by unemployment of former inmates, now has a cutting-edge, high-tech tool to help train the incarcerated valuable job skills: virtual reality (VR).
Recidivism in the U.S. is hovering above 80%, often due to lack of either education or job skills. It’s estimated that 60% of those released from U.S. prisons fail to become gainfully employed a year after their release. What’s more, the illiteracy rate among inmates in U.S. prisons is estimated to be about 60%.
On the bright side, incarcerated people who participate in educational programs are 48% less likely to recidivate than those who do not.
Enter virtual reality technology.
Virtual reality education has several advantages over traditional methods – especially in the prison setting – including:
With VR education, the need to dedicate facility space to a classroom is eliminated, since all that’s required is a VR headset for the trainee to wear. The student is usually seated for the instructional videos and just needs 4-6 square feet of space for the simulations.
Instructors need not be present to personally interact with the trainee, though they can monitor the training session remotely. And, while training can be completed in a matter of weeks, not months, knowledge retention can be up to 40% higher than that achieved by classroom education.
One of the pioneers in the field is Promising People, a faith-based nonprofit dedicated to helping fight recidivism through virtual reality technology that provides education and trade career training to those reentering the job market after incarceration.
The VR training has proven to be so popular with inmates that one even asked to remain in jail an extra two weeks in order to gain his certification, Promising People President and Co-Founder John Evans reported in an interview with The Washington Times:
“Mr. Evans recalled one former student, a convict who had been in and out of jail for seven years, who used the VR headset to earn his certification to become an electrical helper while finishing up his sentence in Cibola County, New Mexico.
“‘We got in, we did the training, and he was due to leave. His term was up, and he said, ‘I ain’t leaving until I have my certificate because I don’t know an honest way to make a dollar.’”
“Mr. Evans said, ‘So we appealed to the judge and to the warden, and he stayed in prison for three more weeks to get his certificate, and now he has a job as an electrical helper in New Mexico.’”
A unique innovation in VR technology developed by Promising People is the ability to conduct VR training both with – and without – internet or WiFi. One example is the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC), which recently certified the company for single-source procurement to provide a virtual reality training program that works with or without internet, allows for monitoring of trainees inside their headsets and the ability to provide industry-recognized credentials.
The FDOC program, which is scheduled to be deployed this month, is designed to train students in electrical work through 65 lessons utilizing first-person, point-of-view videos, along with 140 immersive simulations through which trainees perform hands-on tasks and assessments through the use of 3-D VR headsets.
Promising People has also created the first VR-based, industry-approved Electrical Helper training program certified by the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI).
Students who successfully complete their training and become certified are then qualified for jobs as assistants to electricians. VR education can also help prepare students for careers in other trades, such as carpentry and plumbing, as well as in the medical, agricultural science, and technology fields.
In a pilot study in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a correctional facility in St. Croix successfully employed the Electrical Helper program to train inmates. The VR approach took training “to a whole other level,” especially with younger inmates, Virgin Islands Bureau of Corrections Director Wynnie Testamark reported after the pilot:
“Our average age of an individual that’s incarcerated is 24. That’s the average age. So, that’s a very, very young population, you know. And, you have to be relatable. So, you guess what? Those virtual headsets: that’s being relatable, because they think they’re doing a video game. So, they want to embrace it. They want to take it on.”
Additionally, VR instruction has the potential to enable reentrants to obtaining high school diplomas, making them more attractive job candidates. Studies have shown that employees with a high school diploma earn 33% more than their counterparts with a GED.
One fully-accredited, private K-12 school, American High School (AHS), is already providing VR education programs that, upon passage, provide students with high school diplomas. AHS reports that “Students retain 75% of the info they learn in VR compared to only 10% today.”
In partnership with Promising People, the accredited high school diploma program can be completed in an average of six months and picks up wherever the student left off in his or her education. The program boasts a 95% completion rate.
Likewise, students at Reddam House school in Berkshire, England, are using VR headsets to enter the “metaverse” for a variety of interactive lessons. The headsets produce a digital, exact copy of the school building where students around the world can attend classes.