The American Probation and Parole Association’s first principle of juvenile justice emphasizes the importance of strengthening and empowering youth and families through a strengths-based approach. At its core, this principle recognizes that effective rehabilitation begins by building on the capabilities, voices, and support systems of young people and their families, rather than starting only with a prescribed solution. Over the coming weeks, we will be taking a closer look at how Pokket supports the 10 principles.

The Heart of the Problem

"Pokket addresses the fundamental problem that the only person whose success depends on the case plan, is the one person with no access to it, namely the youth themself." Let’s be clear, neither child nor parent should have the ability to enter or change data in the court’s official record, but they should have the ability to see relevant information and to be able to provide their own updates, with supporting documentation when necessary. A simple analogy is that Pokket is like a patient portal. It is discrete from an electronic health record system, but allows a patient to schedule appointments, join video consultations, ask questions, and keep track of their activities and paperwork.

Getting Started

The probation experience must begin with a meaningful discussion between the probation officer, the young person, and their family/support team to establish the expectations for supervision. These conversations should lead to a habilitation and integration success plan that reflects not only the risk-need assessment and a selection from probation-sponsored services, but also a unique set of goals and activities calibrated to maximize the young person’s growth and success.

All on the Same Page

Pokket provides a collaborative, dynamic digital space where youth, families, justice professionals, and community-based service providers can engage in meaningful, goal-oriented communication. Pokket’s Guardianship feature allows for parents/guardians of youth to be included in the conversation at all times. They can act on behalf of the youth, for example to accept terms of service and a release of information for enrolling in programs. Not only today’s youth, but also today’s parents, are “digital natives” so Pokket allows them to interact in the form in which they are comfortable.

Keeping Up

Young people have not yet developed the executive functioning skills necessary to manage the complexity of supervision, so Pokket provides the necessary scaffolding to achieve their goals, including the important goal of desistance. Scaffolding allows a goal to be broken down into objectives and then individual tasks to achieve the objective. In this way, neither child nor parent is overwhelmed; they clearly see what they need to do next. Equally, the caseworker is less frustrated when they see progress towards goals. Youth can track their progress and communicate securely with their support team—instilling both ownership and accountability. Pokket reduces the ability for the youth to play one care team member off against another.

Keeping an Eye Out

A parent often can’t afford to take time off from work for every meeting: they would risk their income and their job. Pokket allows them to keep an eye on what’s going on. They can even securely attend meetings remotely, with Pokket video meetings. For example, a youth may be on probation for misdemeanor property damage and required to complete community service. Pokket lets a guardian not only help monitor those hours in the system, but also gives the youth the ability to voluntarily check-in via phone-based GPS location to validate attendance. If there were an issue or scheduling conflict with a particular day, the guardian would be able to confirm this concern. The parent can become an active partner with the justice system. Equally, Pokket removes the worn out excuses of ignorance and forgetfulness. All case information is kept in one easy to access place for the guardian, youth, and probation officer with reminders being sent to the guardian for each appointment.

A Fighting Chance and No Excuses

Pokket truly provides the youth with a fighting chance to master their obligations, and no excuses for not following through. It provides the whole care team with a secure, privacy-compliant way to share information about the youth and with the youth to coordinate continuous interdisciplinary case management for real-time, virtual staffing. This ability to re-assess and adapt the case plan collaboratively over time, allows for a youth who is continually growing and changing their perspective to stay in tune with their support group/care team, and for the team to stay in tune with them. When everyone is on the same page, everyone wins!