How AI Is Helping Reduce Re-Incarceration Rates

^{Photo: Officer Bimbleberry / Wikipedia Common.}

There are about two million people in prison in the United States of America, with a further five million offenders being placed under community supervision. Those are huge numbers to handle, particularly without the use of modern technology.

The nature of corrections is also changing. This change is seen in the number of people that are sent to prison and those that are placed under community supervision. Today, the numbers are growing for both cases, and this is raising a new concern.

Authorities are looking for ways through which they can use technology, especially artificial intelligence, to reduce the cases of re-incarceration. They are looking for ways they can monitor those that have re-entered the outside world to help them avoid crime.

Similarly, correction officers are now being placed in charge of large numbers of people with high-risk cases. Initially, low-risk people were placed on probation. This has changed, necessitating for high-risk people to always remain under the radar of supervision officers.

Reducing Re-Incarceration Rates Using AI

Here are some of the ways AI is helping reduce the rates of re-incarceration in the prison and correctional system:

1. Gathering Prison Rosters

Prison rosters are tools developed to help inmates and their loved ones reconnect. Using these tools, a person is able to find if their loved one has been incarcerated. In addition, they are also able to find the location where they currently are.

This is a manual process and consumes a lot of time. However, using AI, the entire process can be automated. For instance, if you are locating an offender in NC, artificial intelligence can be used to gather prison rosters and find information about this offender.

This information will include all their details and will let you know if the offender has been incarcerated more than once. With such information, authorities can monitor the activities of such offenders to help them avoid crime. This will help reduce re-incarceration rates.

2. Real-Time Assessment of Offenders

As discussed above, there are large numbers of offenders in the US. It gets quite difficult to keep tabs on each one of these offenders, given the limited number of supervisors available.

However, this has been made easier using artificial intelligence. AI is being used to provide real-time information about offenders and detect those with high levels of stress or anything that can lead them to crime. This is done using AI wearable devices.

With such information, officers are able to attend to such offenders, preventing them from committing crimes. This is helping in the reduction of re-incarceration rates.

3. Tracking of Offenders

Finally, the danger of a previous offender committing a crime can vary depending on different situations and can be very high when the risk is great. Authorities can use GPS systems to identify situations that might aggravate these offenders.

Using devices such as ankle bracelets, authorities are able to monitor previous offenders and the activities they are engaged in. Using AI, authorities can gather real-time information on how different locations are risky for offenders.

Apart from notifying the officers in charge, artificial intelligence can be used to intervene and help the offender keep away from crime. For instance, AI can encourage the offender to engage in other activities or even leave that particular location.

AI is not only powering digital transformation for businesses, but also making life easier for both previous offenders and authorities in the penal system.

With AI, authorities can significantly reduce the rates of re-incarceration, which is a huge problem in countries like the US.