RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – RTI International in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety will test a prisoner re-entry program built around an app.

The study will test the effectiveness and implementation of the Pokket app, which is designed to connect formerly incarcerated individuals with service agencies in an attempt to reduce recidivism.

Other measures being studied include criminal justice savings, client engagement and collaboration between staff and service providers.


How Pokket works

Pokke is designed to help returning citizens, service providers, and correctional supervision work together by safely sharing information. Pokke synchronizes existing cross-silo human services delivery while managing privacy rules. With Pokket, you get the full context of a client’s progress and challenges, when you need it. It’s built to encourage and sustain self-sufficiency and accountability. Pokke is a mobile-friendly secure cloud service, and is inexpensive and quick to launch. Spend less time chasing paper, phone calls, and emails, and more time helping your clients.

From Pokket website


The program builds on NC DPS’s current program, the Re-entry Strategic Transition Engagement Plan and is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“The results of this research will help corrections agencies around the country, many of whom are looking for technological solutions to assist with re-entry planning and facilitate information-sharing among corrections stakeholders, make informed decisions about which solutions to consider,” said Christine Lindquist, program director at RTI International and principal investigator of the study.

Pokket was created by Acivilate, Inc. to connect justice agencies with service providers to ease the transition following incarceration.

RTI International is a nonprofit research institute specializing in combining social endeavors with scientific measures such laboratory studies and engineering.

This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media.