Inspiration

Leaving prison is supposed to be the start of freedom. For many people, the first weeks home feel more like being dropped into a maze. In a matter of days they need to get an ID, check in with a parole officer, find housing, apply for benefits, look for work and rebuild relationships, often without a phone plan, reliable internet, or the support network they had before.

Boundless Freedom Project (BFP) teaches mindfulness to people who are incarcerated, through programs like Mindful Prisons and Buddhist Pathways. Participants learn short practices (three intentional breaths, a grounding exercise, a body scan) that help them stay steady in hard moments. But at release, that thread often breaks. The practices get left behind right when they're needed most, and BFP's human support is hard to find in the middle of everything else.

Many of the tools meant to help make things harder. They feel bureaucratic, ask for sensitive information like Social Security numbers, or suggest they've submitted a benefits application when nothing was filed. Each of those moments erodes trust and leaves people on their own, right when they need a clear next step and a human.

We also took inspiration from recovery programs like AA: one day at a time. Looking at the whole reentry checklist at once is overwhelming. Looking at the next small step is doable. Small gains, compounded every day, add up to a new life.

What it does

Next Move is a calm, phone-first companion for people coming home from incarceration, built for Boundless Freedom Project. It breaks reentry into small, honest steps, keeps people connected to the BFP practices they already know, and helps them reach a real person when they need one.

Text message comes first. Anyone with a basic phone can use it: no app, no smartphone, no data plan, no account, no password. For people who do have a smartphone, a companion app offers the same experience with a richer interface: guided breathing audio with on-screen cues, a Steps view, local community events, and a one-tap way to message a BFP helper from Home. Both stay in sync, so people can switch between them without starting over.

Through a simple text conversation, Next Move:

Checks in every day. An optional guided breath first, then a few short questions about how the person is doing and what's weighing on them: eating, moving, connecting with someone, mood.
Suggests one next move. Based on the check-in, it offers a small, concrete step, such as finding food help, looking into housing, getting papers in order, practicing for employment, or talking to a person. The person can do it or skip it with no penalty. It remembers each person's constraints (like not having a car) and what they've already done, so the next suggestion fits their life.
Is honest about what it does. Next Move never claims to have filed an application or submitted benefits for anyone. It explains the step, helps people practice it, and leaves them in control.
Brings back familiar practices at the right moment. A 60-second breathing practice before a parole appointment. A grounding exercise when the paperwork piles up. A morning prompt to build a new routine. Every practice opens with BFP's own words ("Take it slow. It is a journey.") and always has a clear way to stop. In the app, this becomes swipeable guided audio with "breathe in / breathe out" cues on screen.
Finds and explains resources from a BFP-approved library (211, findhelp.org, Root & Rebound, reentry housing and employment programs) in short, plain sentences. It also helps employers learn about hiring incentives for people with a record.
Keeps people connected to community: local events and announcements, Outside Sangha (BFP's virtual meditation community) and mentorship.
Connects people to a real person through a warm handoff. A BFP helper is always one tap or one text away. With consent, Next Move collects only what's needed, sends BFP staff a short summary so the person doesn't have to repeat their story, and gives them a neutral reference number. When the situation calls for it, it points people to their parole officer.
Responds safely in high-risk moments. When it detects an emergency, it sends a fixed, safety-reviewed message (988, 911, or the right specialized line) instead of improvising.

Privacy is built in: no account required, no sensitive data like Social Security numbers, minimal personal information, reminders people can turn off anytime, and a design that works on shared or borrowed phones.

How we built it

We started from the people, not the technology. We worked through BFP's five reentry journeys: someone with a prepaid phone and limited data, someone with a basic phone and no internet, someone using a shared device in transitional housing, a family member helping out, and someone who is comfortable with tech but emotionally overwhelmed. From those we set hard constraints: pass the "grandma test," work without data or Wi-Fi, run on low-end devices, and cost almost nothing to operate.

Text assistant: a small, purpose-built language model grounded only in BFP's own documentation and an organization-approved resource library. It has no open internet access, so it can't pull in unverified answers. For the demo, it runs in an interface that mirrors a real SMS thread.
Safety layer: we mapped 25 sensitive situations into three levels: emergencies (Level 1), urgent needs such as relapse risk, nowhere to sleep or no food (Level 2), and legally sensitive situations such as a warrant or a police encounter (Level 3). Each has a predefined, reviewed response. When the guardrails detect one, the system sends that response instead of generating text, and routes to a human when needed.
Conversation design: we followed BFP's Humanizing Language Card. Short instructions (under 15 words), a peer voice instead of a clinical one, and simple numbered choices (reply 1, 2 or 3).
Resource library: kept in a Google Drive folder, so BFP staff can add or update information without an engineer.
Companion app: five simple sections that mirror the text flows: a Home check-in, Steps with suggested next actions, Breathe with swipeable guided audio, Community with local events and announcements, and a direct line to a BFP helper.

Challenges we ran into

Designing for the most limited phone without failing everyone else. Our answer was two channels in sync: text for universal access, the app for those who want more.
Knowing when the AI should stop talking. An open-ended chatbot speaking with someone in crisis is risky. Some calls were subtle: someone who missed a check-in should contact their parole officer today, but someone with a warrant should speak with legal aid or a public defender first, because self-reporting has legal consequences. A bot shouldn't make that decision for them.
Privacy in a high-stakes context. Message logs could be subpoenaed, phone numbers change, and devices are shared. We avoided storing names of other people and kept data to the minimum.
Not overpromising. BFP hasn't confirmed staffing hours, so we never promise response times, and we clearly separate BFP support from emergency services.
Scope. We had many more ideas than time (peer chat, a volunteer buddy system). We had to narrow down to one end-to-end experience that works well.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

An end-to-end experience that needs nothing more than a basic phone and a text message.
A safety protocol covering 25 sensitive situations, each with a reviewed response and a clear path to the right help.
A warm handoff that treats human support as the core of the product, not an afterthought.
Using BFP's own practices and voice, so it feels like a continuation of something people already trust rather than another app to learn.
A setup BFP can maintain on its own, at a cost a nonprofit can afford.

What we learned

The biggest barrier is often not technology, it's overwhelm. Showing one next step works better than showing the whole map.
Constraints made the product better. Designing for a basic phone forced us to be clear and simple everywhere.
Honesty is a feature. Being clear about what the tool can and can't do builds more trust than a tool that sounds like it handled everything.
In this context, a "helpful" answer can cause harm. Knowing when not to answer, and who to hand off to, matters as much as the answer itself.
Technology should strengthen human support, not replace it.
Familiarity builds trust. Reusing practices people learned inside makes the first message feel less like a stranger.

What's next for Next Move

Make the model more robust: iterate on its responses, safety rules and resource library together with BFP admins.
Send support requests straight to BFP: build an API endpoint so Next Move can create contact support requests on behalf of returning citizens, with their consent, so no one has to fill out a form or repeat their story.
Go live on SMS: complete carrier registration for business texting and host the service on a production server.
Test with real people: pilot with BFP staff and returning citizens, and co-design improvements with them, the same way Mindful Prisons was built.