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AI is Sending People To Jail -- and Getting it Wrong (technologyreview.com)
At the Data for Black Lives conference last weekend, technologists, legal experts, and community activists snapped the kind of impact AI has on our lives into perspective with a discussion of America's criminal justice system. There, an algorithm can determine the trajectory of your life.
From a report: The US imprisons more people than any other country in the world. At the end of 2016, nearly 2.2 million adults were being held in prisons or jails, and an additional 4.5 million were in other correctional facilities. Put another way, 1 in 38 adult Americans was under some form of correctional supervision. The nightmarishness of this situation is one of the few issues that unite politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Under immense pressure to reduce prison numbers without risking a rise in crime, courtrooms across the US have turned to automated tools in attempts to shuffle defendants through the legal system as efficiently and safely as possible. This is where the AI part of our story begins. Police departments use predictive algorithms to strategize about where to send their ranks. Law enforcement agencies use face recognition systems to help identify suspects. These practices have garnered well-deserved scrutiny for whether they in fact improve safety or simply perpetuate existing inequities.
Researchers and civil rights advocates, for example, have repeatedly demonstrated that face recognition systems can fail spectacularly, particularly for dark-skinned individuals -- even mistaking members of Congress for convicted criminals. But the most controversial tool by far comes after police have made an arrest. Say hello to criminal risk assessment algorithms.
Under immense pressure to reduce prison numbers without risking a rise in crime, courtrooms across the US have turned to automated tools in attempts to shuffle defendants through the legal system as efficiently and safely as possible. This is where the AI part of our story begins. Police departments use predictive algorithms to strategize about where to send their ranks. Law enforcement agencies use face recognition systems to help identify suspects. These practices have garnered well-deserved scrutiny for whether they in fact improve safety or simply perpetuate existing inequities.
Researchers and civil rights advocates, for example, have repeatedly demonstrated that face recognition systems can fail spectacularly, particularly for dark-skinned individuals -- even mistaking members of Congress for convicted criminals. But the most controversial tool by far comes after police have made an arrest. Say hello to criminal risk assessment algorithms.
The point of a justice system is to punish people for what they have done, not for what they may do.
That is your opinion, but it certainly is not a universal viewpoint.
Many of us believe that prisons should not be for vengeance or punishment, but precisely for what you say they are not for: Preventing future crimes.
If someone is unlikely to be a physical threat to society, then they shouldn't be incarcerated. We can use techniques like ankle trackers and RFID to monitor them while they work, contribute to the economy, and pay restitution to their victims. By locking them up, not only are they more likely to reoffend upon release, but their children are also more likely to grow up to be criminals.
Despite spending far more on incarceration than any other country, America has a horrible record of recidivism. Other countries do far better. Even within the USA, states that spend more on prisons, and lock up more people, have worse outcomes by any measurable criteria. Louisiana is rock bottom.
America's penal system is extremely inexpensive, and a counter-productive breeding ground for future crime. But it does provide lots and lots of punishment.
Put another way, 1 in 38 adult Americans was under some form of correctional supervision.
All victimless crimes need to be removed from the books. If someone wants to smoke pot, do coke, or what ever, let them. But also spend money on better education. Work on the root cause of why this is the case. Obviously there are some people who are going to waste their life. But it's a hell of a lot less than the wasted lives we have with people in prison, or who get out and will never be able to find a meaningful job afterward. Tax drugs and use the money to help people too. This eliminates the money made by current criminals in the drug trade as well.
If someone is publicly intoxicated, who cares. If they are making a nuisance of themselves, put them in a drunk tank until they sober up the next day. Just because someone is staggering a bit on the way home from the bar, who cares. Why is this something that can get a person prison time? If they are being belligerent or threatening others, that's a different case. But that's illegal even if you are sober.
Prostitution is another case. As long as it's a persons choice and they are not being forced into it, why is this a crime. Pimps should be punished for sure. But if someone wants to work for a prostitute, or group of them for an agreed upon amount/percentage I don't see the issue. At least as long as it's understood that the prostitute is in charge and not the other way around. Again, taxes and education should get funding from this. As well as testing.
While I don't necessarily agree with copyright infringement, it is not a criminal offense. This is a civil matter. But copyright law is such a mess in this county, I don't think it will be fixed in my lifetime. But no one should ever go to jail for downloading music or video. If a person gets caught for it, then they should not have to pay any more than the cost of what it would be to purchase the track on iTunes or similar service. $400,000 for one song is insane.
Some crimes should also be judged on the circumstance as well. If someone gets pulled over for a DUI, maybe we shouldn't have the criminal justice system destroy their life. But make the punishment for a second offense much stricter. Granted, the possibility of an innocent bystander getting harmed could go up too. So this might not be the best example.
The criminal justice system is in place to protect the citizenry, not enslave it. If 1 in 38 adults are somehow in the system, then something is obviously very wrong. The laws are in place to help protect the people, not enslave them. Our system of government was supposed to be for the people. The rich and corporations should not be able to purchase politicians either. When someone does more time for a joint than stealing a couple million from a pension fund, something is very wrong.
One thing is that roughly 25 percent of the US prison population is certifiably insane.
In the 1950s we had about 500,000 people in mental asylums in the US.
Today, with double the population, we have about 50,000 people in asylums.
The consequences are in our public parks and in our prisons.
Consider, I'm talking about roughly .3% of the US population here. Would you believe that .3% of the US population is medically insane? Of course. In fact, the actual number if probably a bit higher. But we can at least accept .3%. That is 1 million people.
We need to reconsider "de-institutionalization" which was a push after the 1960s and finally finished in the 1990s.
Look at most of the mass shootings... Nearly all of them are known mental health risks with records of mental illness.
Look at the prisons and consider what filling 25% of the seats in the prison with the certifiably insane does to the internal prison culture? Think about that. Imagine warehoused hardened criminals being mixed with people that don't know which way is up or down.
Look at our streets, our public parks, etc... look at those people and tell me honestly if you can say "that could be me". Because it couldn't. You're looking at substance abuse and mental illness almost entirely. If were economic, then people wouldn't be coming from Guatemala to work and then send money BACK to Guatemala.
If you want to seriously deal with the US prison problem, then you have to first have the courage to admit that it was used as a dumping ground for the people that were de-institutionalized.
Any attempt to deal with the prisons without examining that with eyes wide open... is going to fail.
You can talk about computer algorithms or procedures until the stars burn cold. Actually look into what the prison population is at this point and how it has changed. The increase in US prison populations had two things happen at the same time.
1. The Drug war. Everyone knows about this and it has been discussed to death.
2. And this is masked by the drug war and in part because many people don't know anything about it... De-institutionalization. They happened at the SAME time. So the numbers don't point to one or the other. They just show an increase at time X.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Reality is: AI lets cowardly judges shift responsibility to the technology sector allowing good ol' racist data to be used by arresting officers because technology is the future. Such wow!