Slashdot Mirror
Robots To Patrol South Korean Prisons
bukharin writes "As reported by various sites, South Korea is planning a trial of robotic prison guards in Pohang. The idea is that the robots will roll around the prison monitoring conditions inside the cells and communicate back to human guards if they detect a problem such as violence. Apparently the human guards are happy with the idea because they get to do less, especially overnight. And if you were worried about Skynet, you needn't be: according to Prof. Lee Baik-chul of Kyonggi University, who's running the trial, '... the robots are not terminators. Their job is not cracking down on violent prisoners. They are helpers.' Good to know."
Terminator hardware and designs are evolving in the US and Israel, with handy trial areas in Iraq, Afganistan and Israel's neighborhood.
Why not just put up cameras everywhere?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If robots are able to make it way cheaper to house a prisoner then politicians will have little to restrain them from passing more laws that can send you to prison. It is very hard for a politician to make much headway reducing penalties but it is a no-brainer for them to be "tough on crime".
TOS violation 10 years.
Download music 10 years
Take a picture of a cop 10 years
Insult a politician 10 years
Parking violation not paid on time 90 days.
Kid misses a day in school 90 days
Insult your neigbour 10 years
Not feed your cat on time 10 years
You think that some special interest group wouldn't push for the above stupid penalties?
How happy will they be when someone realizes they aren't needed anymore?
Haven't read much of this book yet, but it appears to be relevant. And it is a free download.
http://www.thelightsinthetunnel.com/
Spent two years working with prisons of every kind early in my tech career, I've probably worked with a third of the prisons federal and state for both the US and Canada. These are not environments where privacy is a good thing.
This is a very good thing for prisoners because a robot can't be bribed, threatened or tricked the same way a human can. Prison is a very ugly thing, violence, extortion and rape are very real threats that can happen daily. It also reduces the risk for the officers that are greatly outnumbered. Frankly it would be best for these robots to do well and become another export, we could certainly use them over here.
Make the prisoners robotic instead, and employ people to watch them. This will not only be good for the economy, it will get all the innocent people out of jail.
Are you kidding me? All human lives are valuable, without exception. Any other belief is, frankly, uncivilized and reeks of a primitive us-versus-them mentality. What's worse is that prisoners are explicitly under the protection of the state. If an unarmed prisoner is injured in an act of violence, it ought to be interpreted as a total fuck-up and a warden had better lose his job.
This sort of thinking is usually cured at the moment the pipe connects with the occipital bone while having your laptop/wallet/cellphone/car stolen.
Which is why civilized countries have a system of courts for determining punishment. Because somebody was clever enough to realize that feelings of revenge should not cloud a decision of imprisonment.
Some men are feral. Whether by choice (misanthropes) or training (via our welfare state) they are indeed primitive and irredeemable.
Actually, I think you're right. In Denmark where the maximum penalty is 14 years in prison (I believe), there is a special provision for lifetime prison for people who are judged to be too dangerous to let out. Even here, the case must reevaluated.
However, this is an extremely small minority. For the rest, this kind of thinking just makes it harder to turn the criminals into productive members of society.