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

Previous art available

[houghi]

http://jeanettes-celebrity-corner.com/wp-content/photos/lindsay_lohan_bikini_al_mo_br.jpg

Re:These devices won't protect against Canadians

[jamesh]

Otherwise one could come across a Canadian without ever realizing it. Many look and sound like normal people.

Are you sure you've really met someone from Canada before?

Re:Why stop at "prison"?

[stealth_finger]

Unless they explode after crossing the red line it ain't gunna work!

Re:Already used in the UK

[Rogerborg]

Assault, rape, murders, drug dealing, theft etc is far more prevalent in prison than out of it.

Yes, that does tend to happen when you put all of the brutal murderous rapists in close proximity.

If you have some objection to it, then feel free to rehabilitate them at your house. Just let me know where you live so I can move to a safe distance.

Re:The U.S. imprisons about 6 times the % of citiz

[Jarik C-Bol]

the fact that the US is over 6 times larger and have over 6 times the population of any given European country would *Obviously* have *nothing* to do with that.

Re:Already used in the UK

[bsDaemon]

A touchy-feely hippie ultra-authoritarian regime that prevents rape, gang fights, and drug dealing while providing education and therapy.

Yeah, I sort of wish I could go to Cuba, too... :-/