Black to Reality: Participatory Design of a Virtual Reality Training Program for Reentry with Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women, 2018

"'Back To Reality' is a virtual reality-based reentry training program for a women's prison, created with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women as collaborators. Conceptually drawing on VR exposure theory, this first prototype consists of facilitated discussions centered around a series of guided, first-person 3D-360° video episodes that depict psychologically stressful situations that women commonly face when returning home. Critical story and production elements—including screenplay, acting, and narration—were created with women incarcerated at our partner prison and formerly incarcerated people from local nonprofits. The institutional, technological, and cultural restrictions of prison, combined with the tensions of making media with often exploited groups, forced adaptations of traditional participatory design methods. The inclusion of incarcerated female voices resulted in an immersive narrative that reflects this group's specific realities and strategies for their specific challenges. The next phase is to evaluate the prototype's efficacy against non-immersive comparative trainings for reentry-related anxieties." -- Abstract