CASE STUDY

Reducing reoffending is at the heart of the Ministry ’ s Launchpad rehabilitation programme . Prisoners are issued laptops to connect to the network , select their meals , or obtain other approved services right from their cells . A great Wi-Fi experience is integral to the programme ’ s success .

“ We wanted to deliver efficient network user experiences to our staff and prisoners ,” said Nava Ramanan , Deputy Director for Digital Infrastructure and Security Operations , Ministry of Justice . “ We want to know about slow connections and poor performance before our users do .”

Workers are free to roam with automated , cloud-based Wi-Fi

The organisation wanted to provide fit-for-purpose connectivity and a secure network solution for its probation sites that leveraged a cloud-native , AI-driven microservices architecture . Juniper ’ s full stack wired and wireless solution hit all the requirements ; delivering network visibility , automated troubleshooting and an exceptional user experience .

Not all the remote probation offices today have Wi-fi enabled services or public Wi-fi access to visitors . However , more than 400 probation sites and prisons in the UK use Juniper Mist solutions and currently implementing 100 + probation sites with Wi-Fi capabilities . Those probation sites use Juniper access points and switches that work with the Juniper Mist cloud architecture , driven by Mist AI to deliver fast , reliable and continuously optimised connectivity to probation officers and other staff . Juniper Networks SRX firewalls provide secure connectivity from probation offices to the enterprise network and cloud services .

For the IT staff , network configuration , management and security duties are streamlined with AIOps . Juniper Mist Wi-Fi Assurance , Wired Assurance and Marvis Virtual Network Assistance work together to proactively solve wireless and wired network issues before they impact the user experience .

Prisoners do not have free and unfettered access to the Internet from any device . For instance , the IT team can use the Juniper Mist dashboard to quickly identify if there ’ s an unapproved Wi-Fi device connected in the prison . “ Juniper Mist gives us very effective alerts if unapproved hotspots or rogue devices try to connect to the network ,” said Ramanan .

A solution for successful prisoner reform

Prisoners connect to the network for various purposes , with an opportunity to improve their digital skills and to reduce their likelihood of reoffending .

“ We ’ re delivering more secure , faster , better network services ,” said Ramanan . “ Prison staff , probation officers and prisoners have embraced Wi-Fi and given us positive feedback .”

Proactive , automated Wi-Fi is a huge advantage to allow a central IT team to solve problems before they impact users in prisons or probation offices . “ We can predict potential issues before they happen ,” said Ramanan . “ Mist AI automatically detects issues and proactively self-heals or sends an alert to an engineer ,

www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO EUROPE 59