Just Listen Digital storytelling in Criminal Justice Carlotta Allum stretchme@mac.com

Brief History of Stretch My history, where Stretch came from – early projects – working with objects and prisons

Why digital storytelling ? Reflect on and re-imagine meta narratives about their lives Possibilities to present themselves at various points in the process Important tool for directing attention to their lives Make meaning and knowledge through multi media, music, film, poetry Creative process to talk through Importance of agency and allowing the authentic voice to be heard – power of imagination and re-biographising yourself – democratises knowledge – usually written word is privaliged but young people

Digital storytelling and restorative justice “Building social capital and achieving social discipline through participatory learning, these initiatives can be used an alternative to custody in some offences such as bullying, assaults, drugs and property damage” “Digital stories enabled participants to process restorative values and their social worlds through re-contextualization and re-articulation of selves in the digital storytelling process DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE PROGRAMS New York programme - The YNY curriculum encourages individuals to connect with their families and communities while concurrently taking responsibility for their unlawful actions through various art exercises including photography, video, illustration, and design. The workshops culminate in a digital story about each participant's arraignment, interviews with their families about how their crimes have affected the family, reflections about their crimes, and community public art ideas. The findings suggest that applying restorative principles and practices may provide a useful framework for meeting the needs of youthful offenders by holding them accountable for developing a heighted sense of empathy and respect. The findings further suggest that practitioners of such programs may want to consider developing other programs that foster empathy among victims through media-arts projects. The digital storytelling process allowed offenders to take personal action and responsibility and to raise awareness of their capabilities to cope with adversity in a variety of ways. First, participants used their narrative voices to create a discourse about their crimes, their impact, and ways to improve their communities, Second, the process of creating multiple artifacts to build a digital story assisted YNY participants in processing restorative values. The creation of digital stories promoted the decontextualization and retextualization of restorative justice values

http://www.designagainstcrime.com Working with UAL and their Design Against Crime Research Centre Looking at the tracking the creative process in prisoners and how that can change their thinking – and how that in turn can contribute to desistance fro returning citizens – Will be using storytelling and participatory visual and digital research methods www.stretch-charity.org