HACKING JUSTICE

Come and join the brilliant hackathon on data science being held by the Ministry of Justice digital team.

We’re holding an all-weekend event to kickstart some creative thinking around the use of data in the justice system, by showing what is possible when innovative minds come together.

We’re inviting innovative people from a broad range of technology, digital, mathematical and data science backgrounds as well as justice system experts to come and build things that could go on to become real, usable tools and improve people’s lives.

PLEASE NOTE: the Friday evening session will be at the Ministry of Justice building, but the hackathon itself will take place at Makers Academy, 50-52 Commercial St, London E1 6LT.

YOUR CHALLENGE

People often have to rely on the justice system at difficult times, making it incredibly important that we make our services simple, quick and easy to use. We know that using data more innovatively is one way to achieve this.

We want teams to come together - you can either meet others at the event or arrange a team before - and use data to work towards one of the following goals:

1. Enable courts to deliver justice more swiftly

2. Offer better rehabilitation to offenders nationwide

3. Reduce risk to the legal aid fund

Your output could be a tool, a model or a new approach.

We'll be saying more about the challenges we have in these areas on the day, and releasing relevant datasets before the event. Please also follow our Twitter hashtag #hackjustice for updates.

Food and refreshments will be provided to everyone on both days.

The event is free to attend. To secure your place, you will need to pay a £10 deposit; this is to make sure we don't get speculative registrations. Once you have registered through Eventbrite, we will be in touch to arrange the payment. This will be returned you in cash when you arrive.

There will be a small number of spaces for government staff/civil servants to attend the event. If you are interested, please register using the appropriate ticket type.

PRIZES

There are some brilliant prizes up for grabs, including a private tour around the Houses of Parliament and a place on the Hacktrain (http://hacktrain.com/). We'll add more details on the prizes over the coming weeks.