The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is using virtual reality to help incarcerated parents to connect to their children. During the sessions, parents can chat with their children while exploring the international space station, for example. This way, VR helps to connect children with their parents in the safe environment of their own home. Also, VR headsets are provided by the facility, and staff monitors all sessions to offer guidance.
The new VR program of Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is supported by the US Office of Juvenile Justice with a grant $680,000. The funds were used to purchase 21 Meta Quest 2 VR headsets, which were then distributed to the participating facilities, such as Muncy, Frackville and Phoenix. For this program, organizations like Amachi Pittsburgh and Public Health Management Corporation facilitate the visits and help answering questions about VR or the prison system.
VR helps with connection
VR helps to connect parents and children over long distances. Children doesn’t have to enter the prison or even travel long distances to meet their parent. In total the program features 11 virtual experiences that the participants can discover while interacting with each other. One example of such an experience is the international space station. Participants can also customize the appearance of their avatars to resemble their family.
The program, that is part of the bigger programs Parenting InsideOut and InsideOut Dad, should help develop a healthy relationship between parents and children. But it also offers educational experiences. Prisoners can learn how to shop for food, use a smartphone or learn how to clean an apartment. Also, important information about exiting the prison system is available. Currently, only English is supported, but more languages will be supported in the future.
Monitoring the sessions
During the program staff is present to monitor the sessions. They can offer guidance using the technology or help during the meeting itself. The program is set up using VR training platform by Wrap technologies, which also delivers VR experiences for training staff. Whether VR helps in building connections between parent and child, will be evaluated based on post-visitation surveys and used for a Pennsylvania State University study in 2023.
