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Data Can Help Fix America's Overcrowded Jails, Says White House (cnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via CNET: The White House launched a program called the Data-Driven Justice (DDJ) initiative to help reduce the population of jails. It will allow states to better divert low-level offenders with mental illness out of the criminal justice system and keep low-risk defendants out of jail while they await trial. The DDJ program could help alleviate the cost and congestion facing many of America's local jails, which costs local governments nearly $22 billion a year for minor offenses and low-level non-violent misdemeanors. Every year, 11 million people move through America's local jails. In local jails, 64 percent of people suffer from mental illness, 68 percent have a substance abuse and 44 percent suffer from chronic health problems, according to the White House. Seven states and 60 communities committed to DDJ. The plan is to use data collected on individuals who are often in touch with the police, emergency departments and other services and link them to health, behavioral health and social services within the community. Law enforcement and first responders will also be trained in how to deal with people experiencing mental health issues to better direct them to the proper services. The administration is developing a toolkit that will guide jurisdictions toward the best practices, policies and programs that have been successful in DDJ communities. DDJ will also put in place pre-trial assessment tools to determine whether the individual can safely return to society while awaiting trial without having to post bond. Amazon Web Services is onboard with the project, planning to bring together data scientists, technologists, researchers and private sector collaborators in a Technology and Research Consortium to identify technology solutions and support DDJ communities. A mapping software company, Esri, has pledged half a million dollars worth of software and solutions to the DDJ communities as well. Meanwhile, AWS is providing the cloud-infrastructure, which should help share data between criminal justice and health care practitioners among DDJ communities.
You can not solve a social problem with a technical solution.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
This is America, and our jails are run for profit. How the hell we gonna make a profit if we don't have as many Americans in jail as possible? We need more for the next quarter as well.
God these liberals - trying to destroy America.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
How about the government stop creating eight thousand new but unnecessary criminal violations every year? We don't need to be throwing people in jail for shipping prepared lobster in the wrong color plastic or for failing to have a sign on an auto shop stating that used oil is accepted for recycling. Both of these are serious federal felonies punishable by up to 5 years in prison. But, these aren't even the silly ones. You can be incarcerated for 10 years for picking up a feather off the ground, if that feather came from an endangered bird.
So yeah, how about we get to the root causes of why so many people are in jail, like stupid laws and income-driven law enforcement?
In North America our justice systems are not Data Driven, and they never will be -- they are Revenge Driven. If we were to be Data Driven, we would have a system like Norway -- where recidivism is dramatically lower than what we have here.
The only way to make such a thing happen here would be to persuade the prison industrial complex that it would be more profitable that way. Of course they believe the opposite is true -- lower recidivism would mean fewer prisoners, and that means lower profits.
Ian Ameline
Might work a little better.
There's no reason at all the U.S. should have such a large prison pop to begin with.
They'd be fools, then, because the private prison companies lose money by providing healthcare. It's in the company's interest to spend as little money as possible, and they can get away with it far, far more than any insurance company or HMO on the outside could ever dream of.
Okay, you've found some examples of unusual laws. Now how many people have actually been convicted of those crimes, and sentenced to jail time which they've actually started serving? 0?
The real problem here is that we have large portions of American cities overrun with gang violence, mainly in areas with large African-American populations. This isn't putting lobster in the wrong colored container. We're talking about drug-dealing thugs driving around recklessly in SUVs shooting one another, and often hitting and killing innocent bystanders. We're talking about these thugs violently robbing stores, assaulting or killing the shop keepers in the process. We're talking about these thugs running prostitution rings that often involve minors.
The problem that builds upon that problem is the fact that, thanks to political correctness, Americans can't openly discuss this issue. There are many members of the black community who want to put an end to this culture of thug violence that infects their communities. But they are severely outnumbered by the many young, white, suburban American college students who, despite knowing nothing about the real problems facing America's black communities, insist that it's the "police" or "society" or "the government" who is to blame for this violent, murderous thug culture. Instead of supporting the blacks who want to enable real change within their communities for the better, we see these ignorant college students instead acting in ways that will only promote and even encourage this thug culture.
The only way to put an end to the large number of people in jail, most of whom are there for committing very serious crimes, is to put an end to the thug culture that enables and supports such behavior. Those within the black community who want to make a real community-wide behavioral change happen, and not just march around whining about how "black lives matter" without doing anything useful to help the situation, need to be given the support they deserve!
Or, of course, the US could overhaul it's ridiculous justice system. Start by eliminating the "War on Drugs". MJ should be legal. People addicted to hard drugs need help, not jail. If they could get their fixes under controlled conditions, you would the dealers and smugglers out of business, and the addicts themselves wouldn't need to steal to finance their habits. This would do more to eliminate crime than any thing else.
Second, stop trying to be "tough on crime". Mandatory, multi-year sentences for first-time offenders, for non-violent crimes. Everything is a felony, and far too many things are federal felonies. Just as an example: attempt to get some Marijuana across the Mexican border, any amount at all - even if it's your first offense, the minimum sentence is 10 years.
Then one could go after all of the other low-hanging fruit: other stuff that shouldn't be illegal. Lying to a federal officer (Martha Stewart).
Improperly packed lobster tails. Taking home an Indian arrowhead you find at a public camping ground. Picking up a feather you found on the ground. And on, and on...
Really, it's no wonder the jails are overcrowded.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Digitize the prisoners and compress the data. This will save space.
I used to work in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Corrections. I helped set up a special facility (Longwood Correctional Facility) where the only inmates were those whose crimes were related to substance abuse problems. We kept them away from "regular" criminals, provided treatment, and we had a less than one percent repeat offense rate. IF they do this correctly and provide treatment for those who need treatment, I believe that this can make a huge difference. I am not overly confident that it will be done correctly, though.
How about decriminalizing drug use, like in Portugal?
Decriminalization doesn't mean legalization. It just mean that you aren't going to jail for drug use. You can still get an administrative punishment, like a small fine, which can be waived it you show that you are willing to do something about it, like following an addiction treatment.
We used to commit them to mental institutions. As it turns out, that had some ugliness --we warehoused them and didn't provide treatment, and many we thought didn't need commitment at all.
So we turned them out of mental institutions and reformed commitment laws.
The number of crazy people on the street went up (48 hour emergency holds don't accomplish anything, no ongoing treatment, commitment reform made it vastly more difficult to commit someone). Our solution has turned out to be tossing them in jail instead, or letting to cops shoot them when they get too crazy.
Now we've figured out that the high numbers of crazy people in jail is a problem along with the PR fail of cops blasting raving lunatics with kitchen knives. So I guess we're back to turning them loose on the streets.
My guess is the solution somewhere is a vastly more accessible mental health system, but talk to anyone with "good" insurance about getting mental health services. At best, you get an all-you-can-eat supply of anti-depressants with a side of anti-psychotics, forget counseling as the numbers guys say it's worthless and the insurance companies think its just aimless middle class people whining about their mother at $250/hour.
So for low-income/no insurance people with serious mental health problems? We won't even bother jailing them when they become risky because the data guys say we could use the space better. We for sure won't be providing any treatment short of court-ordered but impossible to enforce anti-psychotic treatment.
Many counties in Florida have no mental health facilities that are capable of treating anyone for anything. We can not even house the homeless or come close to housing the homeless. Pregnant women or women with small children are about the only people who can get housing. Drug treatment facilities are few and far between or are only designed to give a few days of therapy and then out the door for the patients. I am currently sheltering a girl with a broken jaw that the hospital refuses to fix claiming that a broken jaw is not an emergency. She was a victim of a violent attack so severe she was near death, She can not apply for a job effectively as her face is swollen due to inflammation from the broken jaw. So these ideas about prison reform are wonderful but Florida has a right wing lunatic as governor and the idea that they are going to do something to help inmates is off the wall crazy. Currently the Fort Pierce jail does not use air conditioning.They put ten men in a cell and the heat index is over 100 degrees.. That is justified as "punishment". Yet the bulk of those inmates are there awaiting trial and often are found not guilty. But the catch is they can not make bail so they either plead guilty with a plea bargain or wait for a trial for a year or more. That is a way of forcing people who are innocent to plead guilty. Florida beurocracy may be more criminal than the inmates in our jails.
Every time they try to do this they make major mistakes. The main one is trying to be 'race blind'. But the system is already rigged against certain races, and screws over black men.
Example, they count interactions with police, if without an arrest. So a 45 year old white man that no previous 'listed' interactions with the police (as every time he almost got caught, he talked his way out of it) is listed as a low risk, while a black teenager has 20 stops by police - none of which resulted in arrest - because of where he lives.
So the white man goes free, while the black kid is listed as high risk.
I am white, but I am not stupid enough to believe the data they are using is good.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
And probably neither was the programmer. Instead there are deeply rooted institutions built on racism that become data inputs and in turn racial bias. See, we lanyards are all about one thing: solving difficult problems. Racism is one of those. It's not enough to say black folks got schools now so everything's honky dory. If we use a complex web of property taxes and rules against which schools the get to attend we can achieve the goal of racism (creating an under class for people to shit on) without being obvious about it. Google the phrase Dog Whistling for a start
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stop locking people up for pot tax it like beer
If one person is killed by a black man and I call it aggravated murder and another in very similar circumstances person is killed by a white man and I call it negligent homicide, then clearly the issue isn't "a computer program".
That's awesome, except that the act wasn't burglary. You know, burglary requires entering a home, right? Stealing a bike and scooter sitting in someone's lawn is theft but not burglary. Meanwhile, shoplifting $86 worth of stuff from a store is pretty brazen. Neither acts were violent.
That's awesome and explains why the white guy, who had a record of armed robbery, had the higher recidivism rate. Oh, right, past history would likely be a better judge of anything. Although, honestly, examples like this is precisely why I think such is BS.
Except clearly it doesn't work if said white guy committed armed robbery multiple times, shoplifted, and then committed burglary after getting out of jail/prison. No, all the algorithm is doing is effectively saying, "hey, we know you're going to commit another crime, so we're going to include part of THAT sentence in this one so it'll take you a little longer before you reoffend". That sort of a system is entirely fucked up. It disacknowledges all the people that NEVER reoffend. It does nothing about actually addressing the issue of reform in prison.
And in has absolutely nothing to do with justice. It'd be equivalent to places charging you more money for things you buy now for things you might buy in the future to never give you a discount on future purchases. Or charging you more in taxes for stuff they think you specifically might use but never giving you a rebate if neither you nor others actual use it. Or putting you in jail longer for a crime you haven't committed yet...
Honestly, the "racism" aspect of it doesn't bother me nearly as much as forward punishing people for things they might do. Sure, it'll statically reduce the crime rate. But it's like the Laffer Curve. Beyond the fact that economists will give wildly varying answers, from a top bracket 40% to 70% total tax rate, maximizing tax revenue shouldn't be the objective of a tax system. What should be considered is taxing sufficiently to pay for necessary services and how best to distribute those taxes. Similarly, there's the Prison Curve. If you put 0% of people in prison or 100% people in prison, you'll have maximal crime rates. Somewhere in between you'll have the lowest ongoing crime rate. But we sure as fuck shouldn't accept prisoning guidelines that put 50% of people in jail even if it minimized the crime rate. That statistic should not be the end objective.
Rather than spend money a new boondoggle of a computer system that will likely not work, be over budget and way past schedule....
Just legalize weed, or at least on the Federal level, remove it from Schedule 1 drugs, and let the states do as they wish with it.
We could quit sending TONS of money to DEA war on drugs personnel and equipment, we could empty many folks out of jails (leaving room for the violent offenders), and again...NOT spend more money on a boondoggle computer program for auto-sentencing.
I think we could do just dandy sentencing if just ONLY for truly violent crimes that actually harm people.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
A false positive from the program in the article here would result in offering assistance to someone who doesn't need it. Offering help to someone who doesn't need it does not harm them.
A false positive from the program you linked causes someone to be given a harsher punishment. Increasing the punishment of someone who doesn't deserve it does harm them.
These are not the same.
Start by decriminalizing drug use. The prisons would be half empty.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
The fundamental problem with using data like this is that race is often hidden in the data. A simple question like "Do you feel you have ever been singled out by police" might be highly predictive of race. Combine that with several variables w/ interaction in a complex model and race is almost guaranteed to be a factor.
What makes the problem worse is that the best machine learning models can be very difficult to interpret. After doing dimensionality reduction with stacked autoencoders and using boosting with decision trees, the model will most likely produce good results and be a "black box." This is fine if you're trying to predict someone's next shopping purchase, but becomes a civil rights issue when used to determine whether they are allowed to be released from jail.
I've seen this happen in several industries. I'm not sure if there's an official name for it, but I call it the "Netflix effect." Data mining and machine learning work really well for certain things like shopping. This causes people in other industries to assume they can use the same data mining techniques in their industries. I've seen it happen in education as well. There are two fundamental problems I see.
First, big silicon valley companies can afford the best statisticians and computer scientists in the world. They have the resources to train and validate very complex models. Then an industry specific company without those resources says "bring netflix-like data analytics into your industry!" They might offer something simple like linear regression and call it a day. Or even worse, make up a "score" that has no theoretical basis and use a misleading metric like accuracy to promote it.
The cost of misclassification is not the same across all industries. Misclassifying a movie suggestion is way different than deciding how to treat humans.