Providing IT services for enterprises through the adoption of Information and communication technologies (ICT) in restricted environments: A Participatory Design process to refine the ‘Telework for people in prisons’ program in Colombia

Abstract

Since 2015, Colombia has been pioneering technology education in prisons by providing Telework certifications and bringing ICT access to prisoners in civil and military prisons. The goal of this program is for convicts to provide IT services to enterprises as part of their resocialization process. Although this program presented clear benefits for the prisoner’s resocialization process, implementing this initiative as a service was challenging due to several restrictions from the context and the grey areas in the related regulations that the prison ecosystem presented. In 2017, two years after the first phase of the program was deployed, the Ministry of Colombian Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), decided to perform a Participatory Design Process to analyze the program status, flaws, and opportunities for refinement so that it could be adjusted to enhance the prisoners’ resocialization process. This paper describes how the Participatory Design Process was carried out, as well as the lessons learned from the social, academic, and regulatory perspectives.