Over the weekend of 4 - 6 April 2008, at Social Innovation Camp, the first VisitingPrisons prototype came together. Our objectives were simple; build the simplest possible system that we felt could make an impact. With only about six hours of development time available, we could not do much, but we based our prototype on the idea that we could create enough to begin a bigger conversation.

The VisitingPrisons prototype allows for a prison visit experience to be commented on, and rated. The system then collects comments, building a feed for every prison, and assembling prisons into a "league table".

Visit the prototype

There is no intention to "go live" with this concept. The problem we are attempting to solve is far bigger than a few people with no knowledge of the issues can solve in one weekend. However, even a concept as simple as this has received very positive feedback, giving hope that there is great potential for small changes to have significant impact in this area of society.