RightsCon Toronto 2018

As there is growing national agreement that the US criminal injustice system needs to change, there have been more and more people taking action to fix the system - including technologists. To name a few technical interventions in policing and jails: Tasers. Risk Assessment Algorithms. Blockchain to pay bail. Systems to predict bad cops. Educational tablets in prisons. Data transparency dashboard for police stops. Predictive Policing. Ankle Monitors.

Whether it be AI, hardware, or data analysis, the impact of a technical interventions to “fix” the criminal justice system are large, and not always trending towards justice.

This session will review the different components and forces of the prison industrial complex (PIC). With this understanding, how can we make sure that technical solutions don’t reshape the prison industrial complex in another form? Is it a more equitable future where 12 million people are surveilled with ankle monitors, compared to the 2.5 million people in jail today?

How does someone advocate for abolitionist interventions? This workshop will give you a framework to understand reforms within the PIC, and push for technological solutions that reduce the footprint of the Prison Industrial Complex.