Welcome To The Technological Incarceration Project, Where Prison Walls Are Replaced By Sensors, Algorithms, And AI

from the shocking-new-approach dept

Fri, Aug 18th 2017 7:39pm — Glyn Moody

At heart, a prison is a place where freedom is taken away, and inmates are constrained in what they can do. Does that mean a prison has to consist of a special building with bars and prison guards? How about turning the home of a convicted criminal into a kind of virtual prison, where they are limited in their actions? That's what Dan Hunter, dean of Swinburne University's Law School in Melbourne, suggests, reported here by Australian Broadcast News:

Called the Technological Incarceration Project, the idea is to make not so much an internet of things as an internet of incarceration.

Professor Hunter's team is researching an advanced form of home detention, using artificial intelligence, machine-learning algorithms and lightweight electronic sensors to monitor convicted offenders on a 24-hour basis.

The idea is to go beyond today's electronic tagging systems, which provide a relatively crude and sometimes circumventable form of surveillance, to one that is pervasive, intelligent -- and shockingly painful:

Under his team's proposal, offenders would be fitted with an electronic bracelet or anklet capable of delivering an incapacitating shock if an algorithm detects that a new crime or violation is about to be committed.

That assessment would be made by a combination of biometric factors, such as voice recognition and facial analysis.

Leaving aside the obvious and important issue of how reliable the algorithms would be in judging when a violation was about to take place, there are a couple of other aspects of this approach worth noting. One is that it shifts the costs of incarceration from the state to the offender, who ends up paying for his or her upkeep in the virtual prison. That would obviously appeal to those who are concerned about the mounting cost to taxpayers of running expensive prisons. The virtual prison would also allow offenders to remain with their family, and thus offers the hope that they might be re-integrated into society more easily than when isolated in an unnatural prison setting. Irrespective of any possible financial benefits, that has to be a good reason to explore the option further.

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Filed Under: internet of things, prison

62 Comments

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Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 18 Aug 2017 @ 5:42pm

It's not if, it's when
I can't wait to see not only the ingenious ways these new technologies will get hacked, but the creative things those incarcerated would do with their unauthorized freedoms.
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Matthew M Bennett, 18 Aug 2017 @ 7:53pm

I thought you guys were somewhat libertarian leaning. Please tell me you see SOME consequences to this sort of thing? The fact that we're talking about monitoring those around the convict, also, through voice & facial recognition? No? Not like there's an opt out for that. Or that you could conceivably have an entire society "imprisoned" and under government control, unlike a normal prison system, there's no limit?
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sehlat (profile), 18 Aug 2017 @ 7:54pm

They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
Sooner or later, laws will be passed restricting the freedoms of average citizens in their own homes. No smoking in homes with children comes to mind as an obvious example for a vector of attack. There are endless others, I'm sure.

And, of course, the rich and powerful, the "some are more equal" crowd, and the Deep State will have exemptions and special treatment. Something like this will make Orwell look like an optimist.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2017 @ 8:33pm

Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.

Sooner or later, laws will be passed restricting the freedoms of average citizens in their own homes.

Umm, many laws already apply to people in their homes. Want to kill somebody "in your own home"? Sorry, it's still illegal.
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New Mexico Mark, 18 Aug 2017 @ 8:36pm

And the monitoring AI "thinks"...
"Hmmm... this prisoner takes a walk in his yard every day right after that buzzing four-winged bird passes overhead and drops a large poop. He even cleans it up each time! Recommend plus parole points for healthy lifestyle and conscientious behavior!"

Yeah. No way to trick this system, and no way it would be expanded more and more to "help" "maladjusted" citizens.

Prisons should be ugly and expensive. That way, the problem of a huge prison population can't be hidden in plain sight.
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R.H. (profile), 18 Aug 2017 @ 8:42pm

Re: Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
As per usual, generalities tend to leave holes to be exploited. If someone is in my home and I've asked them to leave and they then make a credible attempt on my life, I'm completely within my rights to defend myself with deadly force here in Michigan. In some states (Texas comes to mind first here) just them refusing to leave after being asked to do so gives one the right to use deadly force.

Be careful where you are when you make your statement, especially if you decide to live by it. Otherwise, you may not live long. I always try to know the limits of self-defense law in places that I plan to visit, it just seems like a good way to avoid the potential of injury to myself on one side and potential jail time on the other.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2017 @ 8:48pm

Re: Re: Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
" (Texas comes to mind first here) just them refusing to leave after being asked to do so gives one the right to use deadly force."

Citation needed.
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That One Guy (profile), 18 Aug 2017 @ 8:58pm

Hello pre-crime
Under his team's proposal, offenders would be fitted with an electronic bracelet or anklet capable of delivering an incapacitating shock if an algorithm detects that a new crime or violation is about to be committed.

Among the problems with this idea this part in particular stuck out for me. An incapacitating shock when a 'crime or violation' is about to be committed? Even assuming a 100% accuracy rate(and good luck demonstrating that) that's still punishing someone for what they will/might do in the future, rather than what they are/have done, and that I most certainly do not agree with.

If those putting forth the proposal want to demonstrate the accuracy of such a system then I welcome them to wear such devices, fully active, themselves for several years to do so. It likely won't change my position, but it would show conviction and a willingness to put themselves through at least some of what they are proposing for others.

Those who have been found guilty of crimes and incarcerated have less freedoms than those that have not, but taking it this far seems to be going to extremes when the focus could be solving things like re-integration into society in less intrusive/excessive ways.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2017 @ 9:17pm

Re:
How about...
* Failing to pay for the electronic monitoring is a crime.
* Failing to report for parole or hearings is a crime.
* Dying while monitored is a crime
* Driving over the speed limit is a crime.

So if you're rushing to your parole officer to explain why you haven't been able to pay for your electronic monitoring, the induced spasms for the speed limit violation result in the failure to report and maybe the death.
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Unanimous Cow Herd (profile), 18 Aug 2017 @ 9:40pm

System of a Down
They're trying to build a prison, another prison system, for you and me to live in.

Minor drug offenders fill your prisons, you don't even flinch
All our taxes paying for your wars against the new non-rich
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Pixelation, 18 Aug 2017 @ 10:08pm

What could possibly go wrong?
First thought, what could go wrong? Someone will end up running a crime syndicate out of their living room.
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Stephen T. Stone (profile), 18 Aug 2017 @ 10:41pm

Re: Hello pre-crime
The question of who has legal liability within this system must also be raised. If a person living under this monitoring dies because of that shock, who would carry the weight of liability for that person’s death?
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 18 Aug 2017 @ 10:56pm

The Word For Today Is ...
... “Panopticon”.
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Daydream, 19 Aug 2017 @ 12:03am

The 'incapacitating shock' bit offends and infuriates me.
Victims would live in fear of a false positive; they'd be risking their lives every time they went up or down the stairs, or they crossed the road, or were driving a car, or holding a cup of hot tea or moving something heavy...or heck, literally all the time, unless you can convince me that an 'incapacitating shock' doesn't put someone at risk of serious head injuries when they collapse.

Home detention is fine. AI to preemptively predict if a crime is going to be committed could be great in the right hands. But having a machine automatically brutalise someone on suspicion that they're about to commit a crime? Angers me enough to want to kill this Dan Hunter.

Maybe you should rewrite this article a little bit, Glyn. Do more to promote the home detention and crime prevention bits, denounce the potentially-lethal-electric-shock part...and, hmm, most crime is committed by low-income or no-income groups, right? Is transferring the costs of imprisonment to them really going to be beneficial to their rehabilitation?
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David, 19 Aug 2017 @ 12:16am

Oh good grief!

Leaving aside the obvious and important issue of how reliable the algorithms would be in judging when a violation was about to take place,

I thought we were over lie detectors as a working concept.

At any rate, the problem is that thinking about doing something activates the same brain areas as actually doing it, and the whole point of sentences is to get people thinking about what they are doing and then decide not doing it again.

This is naive and stupid on so many levels that the only kind of government considering it is the kind of government that imagines torture to be effective and desirable.

It's the "it has sort of a scientific ring to it and someone is willing to take money for doing it, so there is no reason to engage conscience" idiocy that Americans love so much to see in action.
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Roger Strong (profile), 19 Aug 2017 @ 12:44am

Re: The Word For Today Is ...
For the whole family!

The virtual prison would also allow offenders to remain with their family, and thus offers the hope that they might be re-integrated into society more easily than when isolated in an unnatural prison setting.

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 4:05am

Leaving aside the other implications this has I don't find the whole "offender-paid" plan to work. What if they can't pay for such a thing?

If the idea is to move away from brick and mortar prisons then I find the idea to be counter-intuitive on it's face because not everyone can afford such a "luxury" and considering most crimes are done by people of low-income it just reinforces a self-fulfilling cycle except now they're scrambling to pay for the equipment IN ADDITION to trying to feed their family.

Then there the potentially lethal shock that is based on what an algorithm and AI THINKS is going to happen. Hello thought-crime at best and too scared to do anything out of fear it'll generate a false positive.
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Veni Vidi Vici, 19 Aug 2017 @ 4:05am

I saw this in a few movies
The last one featured Christopher Lambert.
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Immersive, 19 Aug 2017 @ 4:32am

Deja Vu
Pretty sure I saw this in a pre-history documentary starring Christopher Lambert:

Fortress
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 5:40am

If we had something resembling rule of law and equal justice under law it might be worth considering some of this.

But we don't. Not even close. So it sounds more like slavery than justice. In fact it sounds worse than slavery.

Very disapointing article.
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Sok Puppette (profile), 19 Aug 2017 @ 5:48am

The technology on which this would rely...
... does not exist, and nobody has the slightest idea how to build it.

Only a credulous idiot would think that today's AI was even remotely close to being able to tell when a real crime was being committed, let alone when one was about to be. That would require at least human-level AI, and probably better than human.

Yes, there's stuff that can watch parking garage video and detect behavior that's often characteristic of people trying to break into cars... and then alert an actual person to watch that camera. No, there is nothing that can tell with any certainty when somebody is ACTUALLY trying to break into cars.

And that is a million times easier than somehow detecting any possible kind of pre-crime that may have been dreamed up by somebody with weeks to plan it.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 6:13am

Sounds like a training collar that would be cruel to use on a dog. This is a truly misguided and offensive concept. I recommend reading the source article in whole. After the "AI" magic nonsense it compares the broken American and Australia corrections systems to the actually advanced ones in Scandinavian. No eye of sauron needed. Just some basic human decency and respect.
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Rekrul, 19 Aug 2017 @ 6:15am

How do people who are confined to their homes pay their bills, let alone paying for the extra expenses of being monitored? Is there a booming "work from home" industry that I'm unaware of? I know some people do it, but on the scale of a prison population?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 6:22am

Re: The technology on which this would rely...
Agreed. What they call "AI" is just novel applications of the same old handful of "machine learning" algorithms, maybe with some other simpler code added.

There is no AI. It is 100% marketing buzzword hype to try to sell "solutions" to the ignorant.

Or in this case, a cynical, amoral effort to sell garbage to the vicious and stupid.
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Cowardly Lion, 19 Aug 2017 @ 7:11am

Re: The 'incapacitating shock' bit offends and infuriates me.
+1 It reminded me of the Chinese government, who after executing someone in the middle of a crowded football stadium would present the widow with the bill for the bullet.

Cruel.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 7:23am

Why wait for a crime
Fit the citizens with happy discipline devices at birth.
This will ensure compliance with State values and ideals.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 8:04am

Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
The politicians always use some perceived threat in order to justify their ridiculous intrusions, like that makes it all ok when they decide everyone (except them) is a criminal and needs surveillance simply because politicians are paranoid schizophrenics. They have nothing to fear if they have nothing to hide ... right?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 8:09am

Re: Hello pre-crime
"capable of delivering an incapacitating shock"

How does that work? wifi? ... bluetooth? - LOL
How do they intend to stop someone from wrapping the damned thing with tin foil?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 8:14am

Re:
Even if such a draconian system were put in place, society would still be in need of brick and mortar (and lots of steel) prisons for those who are actually a real threat to others, serial killers for example. They are mistaken if they think their little shock is going to stop a truly crazy person.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 8:15am

Re:
"Very disapointing article."

Shoot the messenger
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 8:18am

Re: The technology on which this would rely...
Your completely valid points are of no concern to these people, they do not care about potential failures and abuses of their product causing undue pain/stress or even death to those forced to use them.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 8:25am

Re: Re:
Glyn was not critical enough.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 8:47am

Re: Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
Politicians have one thing that they fear greatly, and that is being voted out of office, and this means that they fear their own electorates.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 10:10am

Re: Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
Oh "great"... here comes Mr. "Let's try to pass off a law that would penalize not paying attention to the Big Brother screen on the wall w/ built in camera always focused on you with other parties watching everything you do 24/7.... to be the same thing as a "thou shalt not murder" law"....

Do us a favor and slit your own throat, so we don't have to hunt your worthless state worshiping ass down.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 10:18am

Leave it to corporate agents like Masnick and Moody to pull the slow burn towards state worship. I told you guys what these Jewstards were up to a long long time ago, but you dipshits just don't listen.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 10:20am

Re: Re: Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
" that is being voted out of office"

I thought it was the pitch forks.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 10:23am

Re: Re: Re:
Oh, I had not considered that possibility.
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tin-foil-hat, 19 Aug 2017 @ 10:23am

Response to: Rekrul on Aug 19th, 2017 @ 6:15am
They can't pay the bill ever. It keeps them in a state of reduced or no rights where they can be searched and detained for anything or nothing. Their sentence never ends. This is a feature not a bug.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 10:26am

Re:
Weak sauce, not even a good troll.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 11:56am

Re: Deja Vu
Pretty sure I saw this in BRAZIL already.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 11:57am

Re: Re: Re:
Says who?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 11:58am

Re:
Probably because you're an assclown that uses "Jewstards".
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Roger Strong (profile), 19 Aug 2017 @ 12:34pm

Re: Re: The 'incapacitating shock' bit offends and infuriates me.
America technological incarceration would have its own protocols.

Alexa: Executing.

Alexa: You said "Aarrgh." Ordering a pirate costume using your default credit card!"
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 1:07pm

Re: Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
"Umm, many laws already apply to people in their homes. Want to kill somebody "in your own home"? Sorry, it's still illegal"

Even in self defense? ... Thats perverse.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Aug 2017 @ 1:18pm

Re: The 'incapacitating shock' bit offends and infuriates me.
"most crime is committed by low-income or no-income groups, right?"

It depends.
If you are talking about quantity of reported instances, I would believe this to be true given adequate supporting data.
But ....
If measured in damage done to society, then no. The amount of damage done by Wall street greed barons is astronomically huge compared to the petty crimes that make up the large number you refer to.
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Veni Vidi Vici, 20 Aug 2017 @ 5:33am

Re: Deja Vu
Yep! That's the one.
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Bergman (profile), 20 Aug 2017 @ 5:53am

Re: Re: Hello pre-crime
Given that the monitoring cuff would be bought and paid for by the inmate, I suspect the cause for such a death would technically be suicide.
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Bergman (profile), 20 Aug 2017 @ 5:54am

Re: Re: Hello pre-crime
Um, perhaps the fact that a third degree burn is more dangerous than a disabling shock?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2017 @ 6:39am

Re:
Considering there's already a huge issue with courts farming out fee processing and collections to exploitative third-party companies, where minor violations can get you dragged off to de facto debtor's prison, I can only see this as an extension of the current broken system which encourages local governments to oppress their poorest citizens in order to save a buck.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2017 @ 6:40am

What the heck, Glyn??? This program is not a good idea. Exploring this 'option' doesn't help anybody more than basic prison reform would.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2017 @ 7:25am

Re: Re:
... to make a buck
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2017 @ 8:18am

>Leaving aside the obvious and important issue of how reliable the algorithms would be in judging when a violation was about to take place

That's quite a thing to leave aside. But OK, let's leave that aside and assume they are, somehow, reliable.

We still have many issues. There are fifth amendment due process implications when you start punishing people before the crime. There are also potential issues with fourth amendment seizure requirements (I think an electric shock is essentially "seizing" someone.) An algorithm is now *automatically* probable cause for a seizure, with no review and nobody to take in into context? Arguably, there's also eighth amendment "cruel and unusual punishment" concerns; that sounds like a rather severe shock.

Not to mention the fourth amendment implications for the rest of the family, when there are cameras and microphones in their home 24/7. (This article doesn't use the words "camera" or "microphone", instead using the euphemism "lightweight electronic sensors". But if it's doing "voice recognition and facial analysis", then that pretty much means cameras and microphones, of sufficient quality to do that.)

Forcing people to pay for it means a two-tiered justice system. You can get released from prison, but only if you can pay us?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2017 @ 9:06am

Re:
(Same AC here, following up.) Honestly, I think that this is more a horrible, horrible idea. And as others mentioned, it's got horrible Condtitutional implications.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2017 @ 9:07am

Re:
Yeah, seriously.

Who are you and what have you done with the real Glyn Moody?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Aug 2017 @ 10:08am

Re: Re:
*Constitutional. Not Conditutional. :/
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2017 @ 1:38am

Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
It's just a matter of (artificially) inflating crime rates (drugs, make falling short on loan payments a fraud...) and a large percentage of US families can be made criminals. I see a huge potential market for home incarnation products!
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2017 @ 8:20am

Re: Re:
>How about...

>* Failing to pay for the electronic monitoring is a crime.

>* Failing to report for parole or hearings is a crime.

>* Dying while monitored is a crime

>* Driving over the speed limit is a crime.

Of course, the majority of repeat offenders - those doing life on the installment plan - have no money. So basically, this put the offender in the position of having to get his girlfriend or family to support him - pay for food and lodging. Note too with super-cheap "incarceration" comes the temptation to over-sentence. So... will failure to charge your ankle bracelet become a punishable offense? Whose fault is technical failure? How do these things work in the bath, or is hygiene optional now?

Real incarceration is a much better idea because it makes the state appreciate the burden it is taking on by trying to control someone longer-term. I suspect this option just becomes a "get out of jail free" card for the independently wealthy - few of whom go to jail nowadays anyway.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2017 @ 9:20am

Re: Re: Re: They won't stop with the homes of those convicted of crimes.
Which is why politicians then resort to perverse means to stay in office. Like promising everything to their constituents when they have no hope of delivering.

Another is when they act and react to current events by supporting a plan that helps in the short term but has major ramifications in the long term. For example not paying money into pensions because they want to fund something else while assuming it won't negatively affect retirees in the future because that is for some other politician to deal with.

Then there is another option by politicians to go full Orwellian on their constituents to keep them in line. To help out with that politicians will join up with well funded special interest groups to control the populous.
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Rekrul, 21 Aug 2017 @ 10:26am

Re: Response to: Rekrul on Aug 19th, 2017 @ 6:15am
But how do they continue living in the home if they can't work to pay the rent/taxes? You don't pay them, you end up homeless. You could argue that then they lock them up, but isn't that what they wanted to avoid in the first place?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2017 @ 10:46am

Re: Re: Re:

I suspect this option just becomes a "get out of jail free" card for the independently wealthy

No it won't for the reason you already stated:

Real incarceration is a much better idea because it makes the state appreciate the burden it is taking on by trying to control someone longer-term.

They, the government, want out of that arrangement. If they can get away with throwing someone into isolation and forget about them with absolutely no consequence, and no cost, then they can do as they please with criminal sentencing. No one will care if they are not paying for it. (Well, no one that matters anyway.) Given this ability, they will go nuts with increasing the length of prison sentences for easy brownie points with their voters for "being tough on crime". More injustices will be committed, (Hell, the summary already mentions potentially lethal electric shocks as an "enforcement" mechanism. How that doesn't violate the cruel and unusual torture clause is beyond me. (Of course, they don't care about that....)) and it still won't change the recidivism rate. (Worse, it may make it worse.)

Nevermind that you can bet your ass this tech will be used outside of the criminal realm. Person of Interest's Samaritan would be proud.

All I can say here is: BOHICA.
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Philly Bob, 21 Aug 2017 @ 5:11pm

How long until someone like Homeland Security abuses it and we ALL become prisoners in our own homes with gov't monitoring you 24/7? It'll be FEMA camps right from your own home! An YOU'LL pay for it! Joy and Yummy!
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GEMont, 26 Aug 2017 @ 10:15am

A grim future indeed
Hmmmm.... punish could-be offenders, before they offend...

Does this "system" signal the final demise of the notion of "Innocent Until Proven Guilty", in America?

After all, if the punishment is administered BEFORE the crime is committed - preventing the victim from actually "doing the crime", just exactly what was the punishment administered for, since no crime was committed??

Is "Thinking about committing a crime" to become an actual crime, once this sort of system becomes reality? If not, how does Authority explain its "right" to administer punishment upon someone who has NOT committed a crime?

This sounds a lot more like News From Russia, or Baghdad than America. Then again, this is now a Trumped-Up America, so I guess there's not really that much difference anymore.

Sieg Heil Y'all.
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