Isegoria links to an article on prisons without walls.
HIGH recidivism prisoners on parole learn how to behave and stay off drugs if...wait for it...the feedback system is good (fast + strong).
Feedback, feedback, feedback. It's the solution to everything.
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5 comments:
It's an interesting article, and an interesting idea--if, as you say, the feedback system works. One particular part of that that seems to be failing badly, however, is the monitoring. I can't remember where I read it, unfortunately, but in the last couple weeks I saw something about one state--either CA or NY, I believe--having a huge backlog of unfollowed-up incidents of bracelets being cut, offenders entering restricted areas, etc.
A monitoring system is useless if you're not going to go after the people who are cutting it off or announcing that they're going places they're not allowed to be!
sorry--i forgot to check the "email me with followups" button on my previous comment.
Rick,
As far as I can tell, there's a LOT of evidence on this. Crime rates track probability of punishment at near perfect correlation, and severity of punishment moderately.
If the feedback isn't feeding, you're not going to get any better results with this approach than with the standard system.
Aretae,
I'm not sure if your comment addresses mine. If the system reduces recidivism and parole violations (eg the specifically called out failure to pass drug tests scheduled well in advance, or, more worryingly, instances of people cutting off their monitoring anklets or going into places they're not allowed) then great.
However, what concerns me is the report I've seen recently that says the police are NOT rounding up people who are cutting off their bracelets, or sex offenders who are going near schools, etc. Without that specific feedback, it's intuitively obvious that the parolees are going to continue committing crimes.
Rick,
I think I agree with you 100%.
This system ONLY works with HIGH feedback (fast and strong). With poor feedback (low probability of punishment, or lighter punishment for failure), it's near-worthless.
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