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HERO (Health and Educational Support for the Rehabilitation of Offenders)
Dr. Chris Henry, Senior Consultant at OCC, one of Oxford’s leading IT software research and development consultancies has used secure content management software to design the technical base for a health and educational elearning system aimed at reducing reoffending by prisoners.
The research, led by the Tavistock Institute, involves partners in five different countries and is particularly valuable to the at the current time with prison populations bursting at the seams. The prison population in England and Wales hit a new record of 70,019 for the first time in March, 2002. The maximum number of prisoners that the government says can be safely held in the prisons is said to be 71,000.
Called HERO (Health and Educational Support for the Rehabilitation of Offenders), the software aims to address two key problems that our society faces:
1. How to improve conditions in prisons and
2. How to reduce levels of re-offending, and so reduce the growing number of people sent to prison.
HERO tackles these problems by helping prisoners and prison professionals make more informed and more effective decisions on issues such as health and education whilst inside. Secondly, by helping offenders to prepare more effectively for release into life on the outside.
Using advanced content management technology enables prisoners with no basic numeracy or literacy or with low skills, to learn at their own pace. Also, by providing access to on-line healthcare information, prisoners can make better and more informed decisions about issues such as exercise, drugs and sexual health.
Skills assessment tools are included in the system to highlight transferable skills and to match these with employment opportunities provided through on-line job websites and employment programmes for ex-offenders.
Dr. Henry presented his work at a recent OXIT (Oxfordshire First for IT) event at Oxford Brookes University.
There are several ways in which stakeholders can get involved in HERO. As HERO develops, we hope to expand the partnership to include more of these stakeholders.
- by registering as a HERO user, and joining the HERO discussion groups
- by coming to one of the HERO seminars and workshops we will be organising (we will circulate details of these in advance)
- by becoming one of HERO’s sponsoring partners (information on this can be obtained from the contact details below).
The HERO Project Administration
The Tavistock Institute
30 Tabernacle Street, London EC2A 4UE
Tel: 0044 (0)20 7417 0407
Fax: 0044 (0)20 7417 0567
e-mail: HERO@tavinstitute.org
You can visit the HERO web site at: http://shl.oxfordcc.co.uk/hero/
Further details about HERO are also available from the PROACTE
(PROmoting Awareness and Communicating Technologies in Education)
web site at: http//www.proacte.com
The project’s aim is to make HERO a real, sustainable innovation that has a key role to play in improving Europe’s prisons. 25.03.2004, Diane Piper
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