The criminal justice system is becoming automated. At every stage — from policing and investigations to bail, evidence, sentencing and parole — computer systems play a role. Artificial intelligence deploys cops on the beat. Audio sensors generate gunshot alerts. Forensic analysts use probabilistic software programs to evaluate fingerprints, faces and DNA. Risk-assessment instruments help to determine who is incarcerated and for how long.
Technological advancement is, in theory, a welcome development. But in practice, aspects of automation are making the justice system less fair for criminal defendants.
The root of the problem is that automated criminal justice technologies are largely privately owned and sold for profit. The developers tend to view their technologies as trade secrets. As a result, they often refuse to disclose details about how their tools work, even to criminal defendants and their attorneys, even under a protective order, even in the controlled context of a criminal proceeding or parole hearing.
Take the case of Glenn Rodríguez. An inmate at the Eastern Correctional Facility in upstate New York, Mr. Rodríguez was denied parole last year despite having a nearly perfect record of rehabilitation. The reason? A high score from a computer system called Compas. The company that makes Compas considers the weighting of inputs to be proprietary information. That forced Mr. Rodríguez to rely on his own ingenuity to figure out what had gone wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment