Using Virtual Reality and Collaborative Virtual Spaces to Prevent Incarceration and Streamline Reentry for Formerly Incarcerated Black Men in America

The official inception of virtual reality (VR) is disputed. The Franklin Institute cites two significant benchmarks in the development of VR as it is known today. In 1956, Morton Helig developed the Sensorama experience which afforded participants sensory stimulation while navigating a virtual city simulation on a motorcycle (History of Virtual Reality, n.d.). “In the mid-1980s,...Jaron Lanier, founder of VPL Research, began to develop the gear, including goggles and gloves, needed to experience what he called virtual reality” (History of Virtual Reality, n.d.). Today, VR is most commonly used for gaming and content consumption. However, researchers, developers, and practitioners are discovering novel applications of this technology beyond the bounds of entertainment. With companies sprinting ahead to make VR more accessible, some of the most intractable real-world challenges will inevitably arise in virtual leisure and work spaces (Pinckney, et al., 2018). Thus, it is imperative that early adopters work to actively explore how this technology can address issues of racial equity and poverty eradication for vulnerable populations. This research paper will demonstrate the strategic application of virtual reality technology and collaborative virtual spaces to reduce the disproportionate incarceration of black boys and provide black men with opportunities to become productive members of society upon their release from correctional facilities.

The Disproportionate Incarceration of Black Men in America?

About 50 years ago, with the advent of the War on Drugs campaign, “state and federal governments began enacting tough criminal law reforms, including the elimination of parole, mandatory minimum sentences, and enhanced sentences for certain offenders, including recidivists” (Hutchinson, 2018). Scholars like Michelle Alexander with her seminal text, the New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, argue that “tough on crime” practices adopted by police perpetuate the social subordination and second class citizenship of communities of color. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), explains that the incarcerated population in the United States has increased by 500% since 1970 (Mass Incarceration | American Civil Liberties Union, n.d.).?

With two million Americans in jail or in prison, the US is the global leader when it comes to institutionalizing its citizenry, especially its men of color (Mass Incarceration | American Civil Liberties Union, n.d.). This is further demonstrated by an even more troubling statistic shared by the ACLU, “one out of every three Black boys born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino boys—compared to one of every 17 white boys” (Mass Incarceration | American Civil Liberties Union, n.d.). Hutchinson references Alexander’s exhaustive research to connect “contemporary racial hierarchies seen in US crime policy with historical practices that emerged during slavery, Reconstruction, and the Jim Crow era” (Hutchinson, 2018, p. 2393). Hutchinson expounds on the racially divisive nature of U.S. crime policy by stating that it “reinforces racial oppression through…coerced labor, denial of political rights, economic deprivation, loss of educational opportunity, and the infliction of physical and emotional trauma” (Hutchinson, 2018, p. 2394).

Pipeline from School to Prison?

In an era when school shootings and violence are documented on television and social media, public school administrators have popularly implemented strict security practices and leveraged the resources of law enforcement to ensure that their schools are safer environments for all students. In his article “Student Surveillance, Racial Inequities, and Implicit Bias” Jason P. Nance references a phenomenon called the “school-to-prison pipeline” where low-income students of color typically occupy overcrowded classrooms in schools in poor physical condition, and are disproportionately subjected to higher levels of surveillance and unforgiving policies that push them out of school and into correctional facilities (Nance, 2017). Nance refers to the over-investment in security protocols and surveillance in public schools that predominantly serve low-income students of color as impeding student learning and educational advancement (Nance, 2017).?

This pipeline to prison from school is highly problematic when projecting future outcomes for those students and their families, especially considering that securing a college degree is the most viable way to advance from low to middle-income socioeconomic standing. The Pew Research Center published an article demonstrating that “the typical college graduate earns an estimated $650,000 more than the typical high school graduate over the course of a 40-year work life” (Chapter 5: The Monetary Value of a College Education, 2011). The financial outlook is even worse for students who do not finish high school. Thus, the cycle of poverty is repeated.?

Virtual Peace Rooms and Restorative Justice

One preventative measure being used by districts to address issues of wrongdoing and cyberbullying in schools is restorative justice (RJ). RJ is an approach to conflict resolution that is designed to bring students together so that victims and offenders can share their experiences related to the wrongdoing, leverage feedback from peers, and establish a fitting resolution to address the harm that was caused without further diminishing the reputation and future outcomes of the offender (Das, et al., 2019).?

In tandem with restorative justice, Das, et al. reference the use of a virtual peace room to “invite participants to an online discussion space, allows for control of the conversation through a virtual talking piece, permits participants to add content from external social media platforms to inform the conversation. The RJ Coordinator can also recruit peer jurors to the discussion via the platform, and can use the platform to declare a resolution to the conflict with restorative sanctions as part of the agreement between parties” (Das, et al., 2019). Online access to this space lends to the preferences of adolescents and it empowers students to advocate for themselves and resolve conflicts between each other in a safe, supervised environment.????

Life After Incarceration

In addition to the staggering data shared earlier about the disproportionate representation of black men in prison, researchers Natalie J. Sokoloff and Anika Schenck-Fontaine produced a literature review of college programs in prison and upon reentry that shines a light on some additional statistics that demonstrate the need for thoughtfully designed mechanisms to reintroduce formerly incarcerated people back into society. The researchers share that “seven hundred thousand people are released from prison yearly, creating the need to strengthen structural opportunities in education, jobs, housing, childcare, and civic participation for those returning home. While 95% of people will be released, 43% return to prison within three years of release” (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017, p. 96). There are several reasons why people who were formerly incarcerated return to prison. They range from issues related to drug addiction to the loss of educational and professional advancement opportunities (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017).

Reentry and the Work to Combat Recidivism?

There are several studies connecting the attainment of college credentials to a reduction in recidivism. “A report by the National Institute of Justice states that…post-secondary education…more effectively reduces recidivism than vocational training, boot camps, shock incarceration” (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017, p. 97). To make this specific to male outcomes, another study revealed that “men who earned an associate degree were 62% less likely to return to prison” (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017, p. 97). In their literature review, the authors link the pursuit of higher education in prison to improved “problem-solving skills, self-esteem, opportunities for steady employment, safety on the outside [in the community], and safer conditions inside prison” (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017, p. 97).?

Despite all of the evidence demonstrating the favorable impact of higher education on reentry, the work is taxing and requires strategic partnerships between stakeholders across industries. The greatest exemplar of this work is the Prison to College Pipeline (P2CP) (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017, p. 100). It is a comprehensive higher education program with wraparound support services sponsored by John Jay and Hostos Colleges at the City University of New York, NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), the Osborne Association, and College Initiative (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017, pp. 100-101).?

P2CP is especially impactful because it does not just offer incarcerated people access to college classes, it also provides support to find housing, employment, healthcare, and coordinates their reunification with family upon reentry (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017, p. 100). The authors also cite the development of a web-based College Initiative Toolkit which features a myriad of resources that enables interested agencies to connect and gather information that will benefit people who are currently and formerly incarcerated people with their reentry into society (Sokoloff & Schenck-Fontaine, A., 2017, p. 100).?

Potential Applications of VR to Facilitate Successful Reentry

The next phase of reentry work and research should involve the transformation of the web-based College Initiative toolkit into a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) that is accessible through the use of virtual reality (McCall, et al., 2009). This will afford users an opportunity to remotely connect and train in shared spaces using pre-recorded simulations to help formerly incarcerated people complete FAFSA applications, conduct college tours, grow technological competencies, prepare for job interviews, network with employers who are open to hiring them, and virtually advocate for the reformation of school and prison policies.?

Beyond using virtual reality to help people who have been directly impacted by incarceration, facilitating a smooth reentry for future black male offenders requires awareness and empathy from non-black people. This aligns with an article written by researchers Beatrice Hasler, Bernard Spanlang, and Mel Slater who explain that “a common method to alter in-group bias is perspective taking, which typically requires individuals to imagine how it would be to be a member of the out-group” (Hasler, 2017, p.3). Instead of imaging, they provided select white (in-group) participants in their experiment the opportunity to assume life in a virtual world as a black (out-group) avatar to determine if this temporary embodiment would help facilitate a real-world connection to people of the out-group or in this case, another race.?

Scholars from Columbia University and the University of Arizona have further explored this phenomenon in their own VR research by allowing non-black people an opportunity to virtually embody a black person experiencing a racist encounter. Columbia’s 1,000 Cut Journey does this through the use of a black avatar (1,000 Cut Journey, n.d.). At the University of Arizona, they are doing very similar work except they are pre-recording high-resolution scenarios so that the content looks real (Swedlund, 2021). The future applications of this technology for all incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students remain to be explored. The research conducted to date suggests that there is tremendous room for growth in this area.??

References

1,000 Cut Journey (n.d.). Cogburn Research Group. Retrieved August 17, 2022, from https://cogburnresearchgroup.socialwork.columbia.edu/research-projects/1000-cut-journey

Das, A., Macbeth, J., & Elsaesser, C. (2019). Online school conflicts: expanding the scope of restorative practices with a virtual peace room. Contemporary Justice Review, 22(4), 351–370. https://draweb.njcu.edu:2090/10.1080/10282580.2019.1672047

Hasler, B. S., Spanlang, B., & Slater, M. (2017). Virtual race transformation reverses racial in-group bias. PLoS ONE, 12(4), 1–20. https://draweb.njcu.edu:2090/10.1371/journal.pone.0174965

History of Virtual Reality. (n.d.). The Franklin Institute. Retrieved August 26, 2022, from https://www.fi.edu/virtual-reality/history-of-virtual-reality

Hutchinson, D. L. (2018). Who Locked Us Up? Examining the Social Meaning of Black Punitiveness. Yale Law Journal, 127(8), 2388–2447.

Mass Incarceration | American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d.). ACLU. Retrieved August 26, 2022, from https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration

McCall, C., Bunyan, D. P., Bailenson, J. N., Blascovich, J., & Beall, A. C. (2009). Leveraging Collaborative Virtual Environment Technology for Inter-Population Research on Persuasion in a Classroom Setting. PRESENCE: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, 18(5), 361–369. https://draweb.njcu.edu:2090/10.1162/pres.18.5.361

Nance, J. P. (2017). Student Surveillance, Racial Inequalities, and Implicit Racial Bias. Emory Law Journal, 66(4), 765–837.

Pinckney, H. P., Mowatt, R. A., Outley, C., Brown, A., Floyd, M. F., & Black, K. L. (2018). Black Spaces/White Spaces: Black Lives, Leisure, and Life Politics. Leisure Sciences, 40(4), 267–287. https://draweb.njcu.edu:2090/10.1080/01490400.2018.1454361

Sokoloff, N. J., & Schenck-Fontaine, A. (2017). College programs in prison and upon reentry for men and women: a literature review. Contemporary Justice Review, 20(1), 95–114. https://draweb.njcu.edu:2090/10.1080/10282580.2016.1262772

Swedlund, E. (2021, February 1). Anti-Racism Project Uses Virtual Reality to Let People 'Walk in Someone Else's Shoes'. The University of Arizona News. Retrieved August 17, 2022, from https://news.arizona.edu/story/anti-racism-project-uses-virtual-reality-let-people-walk-someone-elses-shoes?_gl=1*1fpb8j9*_ga*MTcxNTMwMDczMC4xNjYwNzg3MTI3*_ga_7PV3540XS3*MTY2MDc4NzEyNy4xLjEuMTY2MDc4NzIzOC42MC4wLjA.&_ga=2.62559404.1079662426.1660787127-1715