Ask Slashdot: How Can Technology Improve the Judicial System?

An anonymous reader writes One of the cornerstones of any democracy is its judicial system. Fortunately, most of us never have to deal with it. On the other hand, the fact that we so seldom interact with it also means that most of us are not constantly thinking about it. It is possible our judicial system would be much better if most of us had to spend more time thinking about it. I myself had not put much thought into it until I watched a documentary about Aaron Swartz. It is frightening to think that someone could have been left in a position like that. I also hear about so many cases were people end up pleading guilty because they do not have enough money to fight a case in court. Is this really the best we can do? The Marshal Project is also an interesting source of information regarding the shortfalls of our current system.

What do you think about it? How can we improve our judicial system? Is there any interesting way that technology could be used to improve the system?

Comments

It is not about technology

[u38cg]

It is a question of vested interests and poor incentives. Elected judges and elected prosecutors - how can you not end up with poor decisions? Poorly thought through kneejerk laws, like asset forfeiture and three strike life sentences - how can you have justice with a system like this?

Re:It is not about technology

[AK Marc]

I'm pretty sure all regulations are available on the internet.

Nope. Local building code laws refer to NECA as having force of law, but NECA isn't available online. The law is privately written, privately held, and I must pay money to a company to be able to read the law. NECA isn't making it hard to make the law obfuscated, but is obfuscating the law so DIYers will be scared, and hire a NECA member to do the work. Similar things happen with regulations from the FCC, FAA, IRS and others with force of law, but aren't law. Sure, you can look up most. But it's hard, and "recommendations" are mixed in with "law" in a manner that is hard to differentiate.

it's true the prosecutor gets paid to get convictions. the heart of the justice system is the adversary system.

The state prosecutors are better funded than the state defenders. That, and the adversary system isn't the only system. If we aren't going to do it right, there are other systems that fail more gracefully than ours.

Real forensics *science*

[Cytotoxic]

There is much to be done, but a great place to start would be moving to an independent system of true forensics science. In our current system, the forensics people work for the prosecution. They are not blinded as to what the police and prosecutor think about the crime or potential perpetrators. Much of what passes for "science" in the courtroom has absolutely no scientific basis, despite their "Frye Standard" of evaluating scientific evidence. There is very little research into the accuracy of forensics conclusions.

Radley Balko over at the Washington Post just published a 4 part series on the flawed science of bite mark analysis. Our system is so increadibly screwed up that even getting caught on video tape framing an innocent man using junk "science" that has been discredited by actual scientific research isn't enough to get the courts and prosecutors to consider the possibility that they might have an innocent man in jail. The series is well worth the read, and if you really want to get your blood pressure up, follow the links to individual cases down a rathole of righteous indignation.

Tech isn't the problem...

[felrom]

1. Too many laws make for too many criminals. Repeal a LOT of laws. The exponentially increasing number of malum prohimitum laws has been eroding personal liberty since the 1910s.

2. Make congress do the legislating. No more, "as the secretary shall determine." That just means we have no law and we're ruled by unaccountable bureaucrats, and each president gets to appoint his cronies to exact his political agenda on his enemies. If congress isn't smart enough to write the law, then it shouldn't become a law.

3. Loser pays, in both civil and criminal trials. Yeah, I can bring a lawsuit against the US government for violating my rights, but they get to use their unlimited wealth on an army of DOJ lawyers to stall in the courts until I'm bankrupt. The fact that rights are only restored when groups like the ACLU, EFF and NRA get involved against the government is proof enough of the problem.

Designed To Be Wrong

[JimSadler]

Frankly the judicial system is not completely designed to achieve justice or find truth. Often the system exists to either create business or to enforce popular prejudices. For example no judge is dumb enough to actually believe the cops snagging someone under the excuse of a broken tail light or a car seeming to sway a bit. Cops use false charges to stop drivers and seek out felonies and their promotions and job security are tied to these tactics. The average traffic stop is not in reality a traffic stop at all but it is a fishing expedition and that is even truer at night when cops reason that good people are at home and creeps are out on the roads. On the other hand when a town gets short of money the mayor calls the cop shop and orders a lot of tickets be written to raise money for the towns expenses. And then there are other money grubbing tactics. One is sentencing a lot of people to enforced therapy at a public clinic and forcing them to pay a hefty fee for the therapy and a monthly probation fee on top of that. Wife slaps husband three times and husband responds and slaps back one time and the husband is sentenced to two years of weekly therapy at $60. per week plus $75. per month for probation. The prejudice is that the woman is not charged as she threw the first slap and three times at that whereas the cops prejudice is based on the fact that he can slap harder than his wife supposedly and therefore he gets busted, all the while the judge goes along with the ride knowing that the public clinic is so bad that it could not diagnose mustard on a ham sandwich but the city just collected 104 weeks multiplied by 60 dollars a week plus 24 months at $75 per month for probation. We are talking about big bucks folks. And a joint or walking a bit drunk can get you exactly that kind of sentence. In my area if you get caught sleeping on the beach three times you can be considered a felon and actually put in prison. In reality we have no justice system, no law and very little order and the order we do have is often the wrong kind.