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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?
There's also the problem of ex-convicts being looked upon as "damaged goods" by companies. If you say "I've previously been convicted of a crime" during a job interview, you might as well tell the hiring manager "Never hire me, ever." People who have served their time in jail find it hard to locate honest work, which pushes them back to crime, which leads to them going back to jail. It becomes a vicious cycle.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
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!
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.
that wasn't the government. ex-cons used to be hired all the time until around 1990 when there were some lawsuits because a few ex-cons hurt or killed coworkers. the employers were found liable and that was the end of hiring ex-cons
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.
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.
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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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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.........
Like I keep saying if you didn't think they were reasonably safe to be around other people why did you let them out?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
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.