A conversation with the ministery of Justice and Security

What made you decide to collaborate with designers?

“You’ve probably heard this before, but if we keep on doing the same as we’ve always been doing, we’ll simply keep on getting the same as we always got. We really need to re-think how we approach the problems we face. We are faced with major and complex issues such as: how do we keep the Netherlands safe? How do we ensure that our rule of law remains accessible and fair to everyone? As a ministry, we are responsible for the migration problem in the Netherlands.”

“We have found this new approach in the design-based way of working. Various designers work at the MinJenV. These designers are all different in character, and they complement the other people working within the security chain.”

How does this design-based way of working help?

“At the MinJenV we are used to responding to incidents. We are generally very good at that. We put out fires. Literally through our fire brigade, but also the social fires put out by the police and the rule of law.” 

“Nowadays we are asked to look for solutions for the medium term. A design perspective helps us take a broader view. Perhaps there is a completely different underlying problem. It helps us to view problems systemically, so we come up with a systemic intervention and don’t simply keep applying patches.”

What is a systemic view?

“By looking systemically we mean looking at the bigger picture. Everyone at the MinJenV asks themselves whether we are carrying out our tasks properly. If you look at the bigger picture, you can also ask yourself whether we are doing the right things. We aim to bring all the stakeholders together more often and more intensively. Together we investigate what needs to change and what makes it so difficult to achieve changes. The fact that we are all starting to ask different questions together, or pressing the pause button at all, is already a big step. Everyone calls for a solution, but often there is no solution. What we can do is initiate a certain movement, so that change moves in a good direction for everyone.”

Can you give an example?

“Last year we were at Dutch Design Week with the ‘WITTE WAS auction’ project in collaboration with Studio Sociaal Centraal, a project involving social design in relation to the problem of subversive crime. In doing so, we put a topic on the agenda that we would very much like to change. Many items purchased with criminal money are seized. This works well, we have warehouses full of stuff. But in the bigger picture it has little impact. The WITTE WAS auction puts this on the agenda and we are keen to convey a message. The auction of seized items still requires a lot of research into what exactly you could and should do with it.” 

“If you don’t start that process, if you don’t take the initiative at some point, then nothing will change. So we have to do it and it’s great doing it together with the Embassy of Safety. That collaboration is a very sure way for us, because it means it is not only our message, but also a message from society. The design world says: you could also approach this problem differently.”

What is the added value of working with the Embassy of Safety for you? 

“We can help each other a lot. We don’t work on solutions, but on movements. We start something together. That’s less tangible and perhaps also less satisfying, what does it yield? Put very bluntly: the Embassy provides a platform, and therefore a partner for us that has the same message, but from a different perspective.”

“I hear from designers who do not work within the government, but who do work on social issues, that they would like to change that system. As external designers, they are often invited to launch a proof of concept or create a vision. They are always very tangible products or services that they work on. These designers actually want to make an impact with their design and vision. Often, what is ultimately done with the design is not visible to an external designer. And it’s very time consuming.”

“At MinJenV we can take that time, because we are part of the system. But we sometimes need an external driver to stimulate that change impulse. On our own, we can call loudly for people within the ministry to start working in a design-based way, but that’s a bit like we from toilet duck recommend toilet duck.”

Is the Embassy of Safety such a strong engine?

“I think a good metaphor for our collaboration is that of the hares during a marathon and the marathon runners. The Embassy of Safety is the hare and we are the marathon runners. We should actually run at the same pace, but I would prefer the Embassy of Safety to run a little faster than us. This is how we help each other. I hope the Embassy of Safety stays ahead of us for as long as necessary and we keep up the pace until the finish line.”

In what sense do you hope that the Embassy will stay ahead of the makers within MinJenV?

“We are part of the MinJenV system, which makes us blind to a number of things. We need parties that help us remember and show us that we are part of that system. Parties that occasionally trigger us to think outside our system. Challenging us to come up with different questions and insights.”

“I’m also very happy with the theme we have chosen for Dutch Design Week this time: Making (amends). Within the safety chain, probation focuses on the fact that people have done something wrong towards society and they must make amends. But everyone also desperately wants to do well. There is a huge drive within the security chain to make the Netherlands a beautiful country, but it’s very difficult to do that in a way other than what we are used to. For us, working with designers is very educational, it also releases a lot of energy. But it’s hard to keep that lamp burning. This theme radiates the confidence to make things good together”

What important learnings you have gained?

“We are quite risk-averse within the ministry. For example, we are actually launching the Makers Collective (bringing together all makers within the chain of the Ministry of MinJenV, ed.) very carefully. We are very conservative by nature. That is part of our organisation, perhaps of the national government, but certainly of MinJenV. One of the things that Tabo (Goudswaard, creative lead Embassy of Safety, ed.) said at the launch is that if you make a work of art, you make it for an exhibition. You make it big as if it is the most beautiful thing there is at that moment.”

Read about the launch of the Makers Collective here

“That’s my contribution to the Makers Collective, that we can make it bigger than it currently is. We believe it should be given a place in the shop window. That attitude is a bit uncomfortable, after all, we don’t want to sell thin air. We genuinely want to contribute to a transition, but maybe we need to act big so that we can become big. That’s an important lesson I took away.”

A good example of a designer who started working as an employee in the MinJenV chain, says Schuring, is Leren op cel (learning in prison), by Nina Timmers, innovation advisor at the Department of Correctional Institutions. She’s running the project together with Lotte de Haan, social designer at the design agency Department of Extraordinary Affairs. “Nina and Lotte involved the young detainees in the project. They have developed a tool that suits young people and really helps.”