Building Prisons Without Walls Using GPS Devices

Hugh Pickens writes "Graeme Wood writes in the Atlantic that increasingly GPS devices are looking like an appealing alternative to conventional incarceration, as it becomes ever clearer that traditional prison has become more or less synonymous with failed prison. 'By almost any metric, our practice of locking large numbers of people behind bars has proved at best ineffective and at worst a national disgrace,' writes Wood. But new devices such as ExacuTrack suggest a revolutionary possibility: that we might do away with the current, expensive array of guards and cells and fences, in favor of a regimen of close, constant surveillance on the outside and swift, certain punishment for any deviations from an established, legally unobjectionable routine. 'The potential upside is enormous. Not only might such a system save billions of dollars annually, it could theoretically produce far better outcomes, training convicts to become law-abiders rather than more-ruthless lawbreakers,' adds Wood. 'The ultimate result could be lower crime rates, at a reduced cost, and with considerably less inhumanity in the bargain.'"

Comments

Only killing works

[SmallFurryCreature]

It is a sad fact that the ONLY rehabilitation that works on criminals is a bullet through the brain. Not a single other system has any noticable effect. The industry beats its chest when it achieves a 1% different on a recidivism rate of 70%+

Imagine if you went to a doctor and 70% of the time the treatment did absolutely nothing but cost a lot of money. How long before you sue? But that is exactly what is going on with both prisons and rehab. It don't make a difference if you lock them up in the worsed pound them in the ass jail or coddle them till even a ragdoll cat gets fed up. Criminals re-offend.

It gets even funnier if you realize that recidivism figures measure ONLY those cons who have been CONVICTED of commiting another crime, and then ONLY if someone happens to notice the connection.

Example, 15yr old rapes. This is NOT marked permanent on his record. If he rapes again at 20, NOBODY links the two. IF of course he is even caught AND convicted the second time. So the bleeding heart who listened to his sob story at 15 beats himself on the chest on how he saved this kid. WRONG!

There fundementally isn't a simple solution. Some criminals belong in the most secure lockup you can image, some people just can't be saved. Others should have been caught and put back on track LONG before BUT that requires lots of money and yes, invasion of privacy. Me looking in YOUR house to see if you kid might be at risk. Don't like it? The alternative is only catching those kids when it is far to late.

There is a solution, but it involves a lot of money and having lots of answers to all the various problems. Prevention, removal of incentive, intervention with gateway crimes (this includes speeding you speed freaks), harsh punishment for those who refuse to change, providing openings for those willing to change.

But that don't fit on a signpost. No slogan can be made out of it. So it won't happen.

Re:Already used in the UK

[YeeHaW_Jelte]

Yes of course please feel free to only counter one of my objections if you have no decent answers to the other ones ...

But why bother repeating known arguments, this is essentially the same discussion as pro/con death penalty and an educated, sane and well informed conservative redneck like you will most definitely know all about miscarriages of justice.