US Prisons Mull AI To Analyze Inmate Phone Calls (reuters.com) 69
A key House of Representatives panel has pressed for a report to study the use of artificial intelligence to analyze prisoners' phone calls. "But prisoners' advocates and inmates' families say relying on AI to interpret communications opens up the system to mistakes, misunderstandings and racial bias," reports Reuters. From the report: The call for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to further explore the technology, to help prevent violent crime and suicide, accompanies an $81 billion-plus spending bill to fund the DOJ and other federal agencies in 2022 that the Appropriations Committee passed last month. The technology can automatically transcribe inmates' phone calls, analyzing their patterns of communication and flagging certain words or phrases, including slang, that officials pre-program into the system. A House Democratic aide said in an emailed statement they were encouraging the DOJ "to engage with stakeholders in the course of examining the feasibility of utilizing such a system."
Several state and local facilities across the country have already started using the tech, including in Alabama, Georgia and New York. The House panel wants the DOJ to look into potentially leveraging the technology for federal use and to identify gaps or shortcomings in the information it produces. Privacy groups say the technology could amplify racial bias in the justice system and unfairly subject prisoners to unaccountable artificial intelligence. Proponents dispute such criticisms, saying the tech is a vital time-saving tool for law enforcement and does not target specific groups.
Several state and local facilities across the country have already started using the tech, including in Alabama, Georgia and New York. The House panel wants the DOJ to look into potentially leveraging the technology for federal use and to identify gaps or shortcomings in the information it produces. Privacy groups say the technology could amplify racial bias in the justice system and unfairly subject prisoners to unaccountable artificial intelligence. Proponents dispute such criticisms, saying the tech is a vital time-saving tool for law enforcement and does not target specific groups.
Let's use the same AI system for Congress. (Score:5, Insightful)
If it is good enough for Congress, then it should be good enough for prison inmates.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
'cause it's kinda unwieldy that we have to vote every other day because the former elected representatives are no longer fit for office.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
How about having all of the official phone calls of the members of Congress fed through the system, including all of their staffers, so that the American public can see what is going on.
That's one way to prove that AI is BS
If you say an word on the list night in the box (Score:2)
If you say an word on the list that an night in the box
Re: (Score:1)
It doesn't work like that.
Anything flagged would still have to be reviewed by someone, and even the meagerest of cases built. I'd argue there might be even less racial bias and profiling as currently those calls have to be reviewed by a live body, with all the prejudices that entails.
It may even cut down on the corruption in the prison system.
Re: (Score:1)
It doesn't work like that.
Anything flagged would still have to be reviewed by someone, and even the meagerest of cases built. I'd argue there might be even less racial bias and profiling as currently those calls have to be reviewed by a live body, with all the prejudices that entails.
It may even cut down on the corruption in the prison system.
Posting anon to not remove positive mods.
Only problem I see there is that the algorithms are still trained by someone, typically having their own biases often showing through said training (even if they are purely implicit biases). Odds are it'll have a year or two of people seeing it as you do, but then, after that, it'll be a big news scandal about how the implicit bias of the trainers of the AI is showing through, years after it came to be the standard...
Re: (Score:1)
Posting anon to not remove positive mods
I thought you had to be logged in now to post Anonymously?
Also, if you don't think what you have to say is worth losing a few mod points, how about you just don't say it?
Re: (Score:2)
Racial bias is the catch phrase to argue everything whether it makes sense or not
cutting an attorney call off may = case dismissed (Score:2)
cutting an attorney call off may = case dismissed
Want to see AI analyze this (Score:2)
I'd like to see AI analyze and interpret this [youtube.com].
Yeah but think of how much money it would save (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, we're not prejudiced at all, are we?
Re:Yeah but think of how much money it would save (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think the poster was expressing his own prejudice so much as acknowledging the wired prejudice.
Which is true. Prisoners are one of the 'socially approved' targets of hate. Expressing sympathy for them is dangerous, as one risks being labeled as soft or crime or supporting criminals.
Just watch the metadata (Score:4, Interesting)
Make sure the metadata is kept and data-mined. If you try listening to the calls, the inmates will quickly switch to code schemes or pepper their conversation with trigger words and phrases to mess with the system... but if you watch who they call and when, you can tease out a lot of very useful information. Match that up with known events in the facility, and you'll eventually find something either predictive or evidentiary.
Oh, and put a micro cell tower at each corner of the facility and ensure EVERY cell call made from within the walls is recorded and reviewed by a human - as well as precisely triangulated so you can match it to video and find out who has the phones and how they're getting in.
Re: (Score:2)
The AI system would be designed to record calls and flag any that a correctional services officer needs to listen to because they indicate a crime being planned.
Really prisoners should not be allowed to initiate calls but only receive them, except to professionals on a specific list, including their lawyers. They should all have their own room and each cluster of rooms should exceed 20 prisoners and they should have no contact with the rest of the prison population, better for control and training, a class
Check this out (Score:1)
Re:Just watch the metadata (Score:4, Insightful)
Or maybe just don't monitor their calls and give them free access to things like email and messenger apps.
The goal of prison is to prevent recidivism, right? You want them to go straight when they come out. Destroying all their relationships with family and friends by limiting contact is not going to help them do that. You want them to come out of prison with a support network, somewhere to live, some job prospects.
Re: (Score:2)
Apparently the idea is more to make the prisoner pay for all contact with the external world. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/m... [prisonpolicy.org]
Re: (Score:3)
The prison-industrial complex making sure that it has a steady supply of people to keep profits up.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought about that one and while I tend to agree the problem with explaining things with 'a complex' is that while it can help identifying organizational inertia and interests that play a large role it is also an indication of problems which are quite integrated in society. the war on drugs was not started on behalf of the prison system. In the end cultural aspects which emphasize punishment as a tool are also important, as are solidarity issues where it's considered attractive to cast out whatever group
Re: (Score:1)
Or maybe just don't monitor their calls and give them free access to things like email and messenger apps.
Sure let them just continue to run their criminal enterprises from prison. Let them just continue to harass, threaten, and possibly endanger their victims. Got some other brilliant ideas for us?
Destroying all their relationships with family and friends by limiting contact is not going to help them do that.
Actually it just might, in a lot of cases those persons are the bad influences that got them into so much trouble in the first place. In other cases they are probably bad influences likely to land their friends and family in prison too. If anything we should maximize the use of "diesel therapy" moving prisons as f
Re: (Score:2)
How many criminal masterminds with crime enterprises do you think are actually in prison?
In any case the United States has the highest prison population of any developed nation. Something is clearly going badly wrong in that country which tells us that the current system isn't working.
Re: (Score:2)
"How many criminal masterminds with crime enterprises do you think are actually in prison?"
Agreed. Most people in prison are there for beating up their wife or robbing a liquor store. They aren't Dr Evil trying to keep their criminal network running. They are people with poor judgement and self control and usually barely have any outside support. Isolating them more doesn't seem productive for anyone.
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder about the original bad influence who inclined you toward thinking about bad influence in such a hopelessly reductive way.
Or perhaps there was more than one. Or perhaps the sum of your formative influences was greater than the parts. Or perhaps you came to this position on your own steam, and there's no original bad influence to excuse your present behaviour.
From what
Prisoners are not all inside for the same crime (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
It's amazing the number of pr
It'll definitely target by race (Score:2)
It's proponents are BSing when they claim it won't target by race. It was just yesterday we had a story (https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/08/09/2112225/ai-algorithms-uncannily-good-at-spotting-your-race-from-medical-scans) about how AI could accurately identify race based on X-ray images of just part of someone's body. Accurately as in the worst AI was right 80% of the time and the best was north of 99%. And I doubt the prison system is anywhere near as interested in preventing racial bias in it's AI a
Further to your point... (Score:4, Interesting)
From a few stories earlier:
"A Twitter image-cropping algorithm prefers to show faces that are slimmer, younger and with lighter skin, a researcher has found. Bogdan Kulynyc won $3,500 in a Twitter-organized contest to find biases in its cropping algorithm. Earlier this year, Twitter's own research found the algorithm had a bias towards cropping out black faces. The 'saliency algorithm' decided how images would be cropped in Twitter previews, before being clicked on to open at full size. But when two faces were in the same image, users discovered, the preview crop appeared to favor white faces, hiding the black faces until users clicked through. As a result the company revised how images were handled, saying cropping was best done by people."
As you pointed out in your comment, though about medical people rather than a social media platform, Twitter is actively attempting to find problems with their algorithm. You can bet your heinie those running US prison systems will have no such interest. Indeed, some may actively seek to suppress such evidence.
Re: (Score:2)
It's proponents are BSing when they claim it won't target by race. It was just yesterday we had a story (https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/08/09/2112225/ai-algorithms-uncannily-good-at-spotting-your-race-from-medical-scans) about how AI could accurately identify race based on X-ray images of just part of someone's body. Accurately as in the worst AI was right 80% of the time and the best was north of 99%. And I doubt the prison system is anywhere near as interested in preventing racial bias in it's AI as the medical people were.
It's not that the algorithms will target by race. They'll just make race hard to ignore when looking at the statistics.
Will only catch very dumbest (Score:5, Funny)
Most use code-words and local slang. Only a moron would state deviousness in obvious language. Then again, many inmates are criminals because they weren't smart enough to get a real job.
And many will screw with it on purpose to "mess with the fuzz" and make it useless for their buddies.
"Aunt Martha, your cherry pie was killer. I couldn't wait to stab into it and carve out a fleshy chunk of blood-red cherry guts. Everyone wanted some so they ganged up around the oven waiting for it bleed hot cherries out of its noggin, meaning its goose was cooked. I remember one burned, so we had to bury it in the backyard before the neighbors complained about the smell. Gotta hide that stuff. But Fido didn't care, he always finds the licky loot, tampered or not."
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah. How dare he use inaccurate prison vernacular. Everyone else on Slashdot has the decency to do detained research and analysis on whatever subject they are posting on.
Re: (Score:3)
With such a huge prison population I doubt if your idea about prison inmates is still relevant. The prison system is presented by tv series about people where everybody agrees they don't belong on the street. The reality is more the opposite, most of them don't belong in prison. And when you want to control all their phone calls(if they are lucky enough to get them) that requires a lot of manpower, and AI allows you to monitor all of them. Those requiring more attention can be monitored the old fashioned wa
Re: (Score:2)
The AI need only be trained to recognize code-words and slang.
Re: (Score:1)
That's about as consistent and stable as the "in" JavaScript UI framework of the week.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, so many prisoners will like trying to call home and getting "I'm sorry,your previous calls were flagged as violent. Your phone privileges have been revoked until a CO reviews your previous call and takes appropriate action"
That's not the point (Score:2)
Re:Will only catch very dumbest (Score:4, Insightful)
Most use code-words and local slang. Only a moron would state deviousness in obvious language. Then again, many inmates are criminals because they weren't smart enough to get a real job.
And many will screw with it on purpose to "mess with the fuzz" and make it useless for their buddies.
You misunderstand the purpose of the system.
It's not to catch people trying to organise crimes, it's to give a fat government contract to a friend of controlling politicians so that friend can give them an even larger kickback.
If any prisoners get additional punishment, it's entirely an unintended benefit.
Or you know, you can fix the problem that is the prison-industrial complex. Use alternative punishments like community service or financial disincentives to avoid putting people inside. Stop locking up people just for having a bit of weed and for those who have no other option but jail time, treat them like human beings (this says more about us and our society than it does about the prisoners) because unless they're clearly so dangerous they have to go to straight to supermax there is a chance they can be rehabilitated and rejoin society as a productive member (or at the very least, a non-destructive one).
Maybe its just wrong. (Score:3)
It always bugs me that these conversations come down to these technical points.
Since when can any human being be broke down into a statistical point system and be accurate? It's never happened, and it won't happen. If you don't believe me, check your spam folder. The debate about one's soul has been raging forever, and these guys think they can now play god with AI?
I'm not sure treating our prisoners as terribly as we can, and disrespecting them as much as possible, is the best idea. It certainly doesn't help anyone that is caught up in the system further appreciate the system.
Prisoners are still people. The majority leave prison. Shouldn't we want folks have more respect for the system by the time they leave?
--
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. - Garth Brooks
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
An appeal to ethics and human dignity, with regards to any element of the American prison system, will not ever work because the people you are making the appeal to are al
Re: (Score:2)
US Prisoners can legally be slaves (Score:2)
"Prisoners in the US represent unpaid, slave labor."
Few seem to have noticed SLAVERY is still acceptable in the US per the 13th Amendment, which states...
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
So, you can have slaves as long as its punishment for a crime they have been convicted from.
Obligatory... (Score:3)
Ai is breach of privacy (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Prisoner rights? (Score:2)
I know we're talking about prisoners here, but: do they have no right to privacy? Seems to me that, if they are allowed phone calls, they should be able to make those calls without having the calls recorded and analyzed. I mean: what are they going to do, on the phone, that is illegal? Let's suppose that an inmate asks for drugs to be smuggled in. Asking is perfectly legal, as far as I can imagine. It would be the actual smuggling and/or possession that would be the crime. So this is sort of a "pre-crime" e
Re: (Score:3)
We're talking about the US justice system here. That's a bit of a misnomer, it's more a "punishment and revenge" system, I don't really see a lot of justice there.
There's method in this. By treating them like sub-humans, we basically tell them that they are not wanted in our society, alienating them more from it and reinforcing their life of crime, which fuels the industrial prison complex by ensuring that someone who went in once will come back for more later, keeping prisons filled and the industry runnin
Re: (Score:3)
I know we're talking about prisoners here, but: do they have no right to privacy? Seems to me that, if they are allowed phone calls, they should be able to make those calls without having the calls recorded and analyzed. I mean: what are they going to do, on the phone, that is illegal? Let's suppose that an inmate asks for drugs to be smuggled in. Asking is perfectly legal, as far as I can imagine. It would be the actual smuggling and/or possession that would be the crime. So this is sort of a "pre-crime" evidence collection.
According to US law they have lost some of their privacy rights including the one we are discussing here. Their cells can for example also be searched without a warrant. You then ask what can be done on the phone that is illegal. I believe your example is in fact illegal since it is most likely in the form of planning a crime. Just like it is illegal to plan a murder or to plan beating up a witness. The planning stage is not necessarily "pre-crime".
But you are of course right that it is a balance between pr
Costs? (Score:2)
Knowing that the prison system charges an obscene amount for phone calls, I'm wondering who will pay for this? Will this be an additional charge on top of how much they charge for phone calls? Will the "AI company" be paying the prison system for access to the data they'll harvest?
AI Classifies information Humans make decsions (Score:2)
Having an AI monitor and flag calls that may seem to be about illegal information isn't a bad thing, however the AI, shouldn't be the direct connection to punishing the prisoner, it may flag it, where a real person can review it, then they make the decision on to punish the prisoner or not.
Insurance Companies use AI to try to catch fraud. However after it catches a case, it should go to a person to review it. Look that doctor prescribes a lot of pain killers. Well lets review the data. Oh look they are a
That's strange (Score:3)
So, like voicemail transcription? (Score:2)
Yes. That's what's wrong (Score:1)
Of the things we're getting wrong (intentionally or unintentionally) with how we cage our fellow man, inmate communication is an entire sub-industry that's already highly leveraged in order to monetize it. If you're in prison for a crime, all 'freedoms" may not be accessible (rightly so), but encroaching on human rig
HAHAHAHAHA! (Score:1)