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

Incipient Tyranny

[mbone]

This is incipient tyranny, no more, no less. Just wait - if this isn't stopped, in five years these devices will be used routinely in High Schools (probably as a condition for participation in Athletics and other after School activities), and in ten years as a condition for employment in certain kinds of jobs.

Re:Already used in the UK

[xtracto]

Well, that is sweet.

So before committing a crime which my lead you to have a shock-bracer people will actually *think* about the consequences? becoming preys from attackers uh?

I am sure that will be a good incentive to avoid committing a crime no?

Re:Already used in the UK

[Rogerborg]

Maybe we could tackle it by incarcerating them in some sort of Super Brutal Murderous Rapist Prison, to keep the other brutal murderous rapists safe in their Regular Brutal Murderous Rapist Prison.

Ah, God bless liberals. Always with the "There's a problem! Someone needs to do something about it!"

Here's the problem: non brutal murderous rapists getting brutally murdered and raped. Here's the solution: stop pretending that it's possible to "rehabilitate" brutal murderous rapists, and just eat the costs of keeping them away from people that actually deserve protection indefinitely. We could cut parole hearings and the parole service to save money, for starters.