So it finally happened.
You got caught illegally downloading the entire
Lord of the Rings trilogy because a certain
streaming service only has the theatrical
versions and not the far superior director’s
cuts.
Even more bad news, the judge is the third
cousin of Peter Jackson’s personal chef’s
dog walker, and is really throwing the book
at you.
For your minor cyber crimes you were given
a sentence of two years in prison.
You’ve already served a few months, except
you’re not actually holed up in a brick
and mortar prison, you’re at home, with
a headset on.
For ten hours a day you have to wear a headset
and serve time in a virtual prison.
You’re probably thinking that this is some
futuristic nonsense, but keep listening, because
virtual prisons may well be coming to a judicial
system near you.
Ok, so as you know because you’ve watched
all our other prison shows, the USA locks
up more people per capita than any other country
by a long, long way.
This country is a specialist at incarceration,
an unbeatable Olympian in the race to have
more people behind bars.
Before we get to the reality of virtual prison,
you have to hear some facts first, and then
you might understand why virtual incarceration
is being taken seriously right now.
As you watch this there are something like
2.3 million folks in the U.S. doing time,
but around two-thirds of those people are
locked up for non-violent crimes.
Around 850,000 people are in prison or jail
for assault, murder, sexual assault, manslaughter
and robbery, all counted as violent crimes.
612,000 people are in local jails, although
462,000 of them haven’t even been convicted
yet.
They’re innocent until proven guilty, or
as some of our dear viewers have said in the
comments’ section, more like guilty until
proven innocent.
Many of those people just can’t afford to
pay the bail money, so the poor folks lose
out big time.
About half a million prisoners in the U.S.
are in for drug possession.
Something like 60,000 youths under the age
of 18 are locked up in some way or under house
arrest.
Ok, you get the picture, but we also need
to tell you that the ever-increasing number
of for-profit private prisons in the U.S.
have quotas.
They need inmates, and most of the contracts
ask for 80 to 100% occupancy.
The largest private prison outfit is the ‘Corrections
Corporation of America’ and in 2012 it told
the governors of 48 states that it would take
over some public prisons, but the governors
had to guarantee a 90 percent occupancy rate.
In 2018, around 8 percent of prisoners were
in private prisons.
You, the taxpayer, foot the bill for all those
prisoners.
It’s not a small bill.
As for how much it costs to lock someone up
for a year in the U.S. it depends on where
they are, but it’s between $30,000 and $60,000
per prisoner.
The entire system costs you guys $80 billion
a year.
In the UK it’s even more expensive to pay
for a prisoner, with the cost of imprisoning
someone for a year closer to $90,000.
So, for all that cash, do prisoners come out
good guys, totally rehabilitated, and ready
to start a new life?
Not really.
Around 44 percent of U.S. prisoners will be
back in jail or prison within a year.
About 68 percent will be back in three years
and about 77 percent will be back in five
years.
That’s why the officers often joke about
the “revolving door” and why prisoners
talk about prison only being, “crime school.”
Ok, so we know we’ve been a bit stat heavy
here, but you need to know why so many people
in the U.S., including some politicians, are
screaming out for prison reform.
But how, how do you change this system?
Well, let’s imagine that those folks in
for minor offenses or drug offenses, the people
who don’t pose too much of a problem to
society, don’t actually go to so-called
crime school.
They don’t have to follow that confounding
prison code, get beaten up, or be traumatized
in solitary confinement.
What some people are now saying is that these
people shouldn’t be going to prison, a place
they’ll likely return to.
The future might see these guys being held
under house arrest, wearing an electronic
tag with GPS built into it.
That costs around nine bucks a day, and there
will have to be supervision and a monitoring
system.
You gotta remember that they are confined
to their home, and people can still visit
them.
They could still be involved in crime.
All this will cost money, but it will still
be cheaper than prison, say some analysts.
That’s not just because prisoners cost so
much to look after, but as you know, the department
of corrections needs to pay for the upkeep
of prisons…pay for its officers and admin,
it’s planes and other transport vehicles,
etc.
So, let’s say you’ve got some guy who's
doing time at home for burglary or selling
pills to his friends.
He’s been tagged and can’t leave the house.
He is monitored, visited at times by someone
responsible for his home incarceration, and
he also has to be in a virtual prison for
a good part of the day.
In the virtual prison he is not in solitary
climbing the walls or smearing the door with
his own excrement.
He’s not feeling paranoid on the yard or
occasionally having to see someone get their
face slashed.
He’s not following any kind of brutal Catch-22
prison code.
He might actually be virtually working as
a car mechanic.
Or maybe he’s learning coding.
Maybe he’s taking English classes.
He’s getting a virtual education.
Ok, so what if he’s having mental issues?
Well, in that case, he goes to a virtual therapy
class.
If he has drug addiction problems, he gets
virtual counseling.
Maybe for some part of the day, he really
does have to sit in a virtual prison cell,
just to give him a taste of prison.
Ok, so many of you now are screaming at the
screen, saying who are these idealistic hippy
fools who believe this could happen?
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger guys.
Those people who believe this might work do
see problems.
What if the prisoner just goes out of the
house and commits another crime?
That’s a big possibility.
What if the prisoner refuses to wear his headset
and do his virtual time?
What if he doesn’t attend his classes?
The answer, we guess, is they go to real prison.
But let’s also remember this, the vast majority
of repeat offenders have lived a life that
consisted of trauma, neglect or abuse.
Scientists are also saying that many violent
offenders have suffered a traumatic brain
injury as children, and many of them suffer
from mental illness due to some other emotional
trauma in childhood.
They kinda need fixing, and as Robert Sapolsky
said in his groundbreaking neuroscience book,
“Behave”, maybe we need to rethink the
justice system and stop thinking its virtuous
to put people behind bars.
That’s where virtual reality comes in again.
These violent offenders might have to stay
in a real prison, but perhaps virtual reality
can support them, give them counseling, give
them an education.
We should say some folks think plugging in
prisoners to headsets to change them sounds
dystopian, just like the story of a guy named
Alex in the novel and movie, “A Clockwork
Orange.”
We should say, we don't think violent re-education
is what supporters of prison reform are saying
should happen.
Right now, some prisons are actually using
virtual reality headsets to help long-term
prisoners about to be released.
They might use virtual ATM cards.
Walk down a virtual modern street.
Use a computer or order a taxi.
You must remember, long term institutionalized
prisoners often return to prison because they
just can’t cope with the outside.
Does this work?
This is how one program coordinator put it,
“With social workers on-hand for support,
the VR lessons are reinforced with classroom
instruction.
Participants wear the VR headset and control
virtual hands to complete tasks.
The graphics are not photo-realistic, but
nonetheless evoke strong emotions from prisoners
who have spent decades behind bars.”
One guy started crying after a VR session.
He couldn’t believe how much the world had
changed.
The hope now is that these sessions will drastically
reduce the recidivism rate.
Even the federal Bureau of Prisons is interested,
after hearing reports that VR can help prisoners
not only with education, but also emotional
stress.
The program ran at another prison, and the
coordinator said this in an interview, “An
offender can practice simple tasks like doing
laundry to difficult social skills such as
dealing with family or job conflicts.
The impact of 360-degree immersion is powerful
in a way that other education and training
platforms lack.”
If you think this is not important, just imagine
this…if you’re old enough.
Imagine you went to prison in the nineties
close to the time when Meatloaf was singing
“I’d do anything for love” and Kurt
Cobain’s head was still intact.
The world wasn’t that smart back then in
terms of technology.
You had no smartphones.
We weren’t all connected.
It was a totally different world.
Now, imagine that 1993-you was just released
from prison.
Imagine the shock you’d feel, the anxiety?
That’s why VR is helping those long stayers.
You might be thinking that this sounds too
expensive and why should prisoners get a VR
headset when you can’t afford one?
Well, the people promoting this stuff believe
it will in the end reduce the cost to the
taxpayer.
But better, it might make your streets safer.
It will be expensive at first.
To make virtual reality you have to film all
the locations.
You have to make all those classes and have
virtual classrooms.
You need to create many new worlds.
Just to create one certain VR program for
young offenders it cost the Department of
Corrections $20,000 to run the program and
a further $180,000 for all the filming and
equipment.
Could VR be the future in terms of rehabilitating
people inside a brick and mortar prison, or
could VR and house arrest be the solution
to the USA’s shameful prison population
and recidivism rates?
Some people really think there is a chance
this could work.
A U.S. professor who studies the mental health
effects of prison confinement thinks it could
help inside prisons.
She said, “You don’t realize how much
the brain has gone dormant when you put people
in an artificial environment that constrains
their choices and limits their sensory information.”
She believes VR could help the brains of prisoners
develop, giving them challenges, putting them
in situations where they have to use that
prefrontal cortex of theirs to make the right
choices.
This is called rehabilitation, something quite
different from crime school or the literal
torture of solitary confinement.
In Europe, some countries are using VR to
prevent drug addicts in prison going back
onto the streets and getting hooked again.
The VR experience reinforces new behavior
and deals with cravings.
This is important.
Look at a country like the UK, a huge consumer
of drugs per capita, a veritable world leader.
When we are talking about drug-related crime,
not just selling drugs or taking drugs, but
anything related to drugs, you’re looking
at a huge part of the prison population in
the UK.
Alcohol addiction itself is responsible for
multitudes of crimes, from crashing cars to
having fights to just making bad decisions
like shoplifting or scraping a key down someone’s
car.
Some people are hoping that this new VR technology
can treat addiction and so lower the rate
of recidivism.
We should also say, any prisoner will tell
you that drugs, and even alcohol, can easily
be purchased in prison.
The drugs just cost more, which means more
debt, more problems.
Maybe VR could help the addicts inside still
buying their fix.
So, VR may help those inside in the future
with mental health issues or those who need
to educate themselves.
It might provide those who’ve done long
stretches of prison time some confidence for
when they enter a new world.
It might save those in solitary from losing
their minds, but it will be costly.
But the 80 billion dollar question is could
house arrest and virtual prison work for those
who have committed nonviolent offenses?
You have to ask that question and then think
about the kid we talked about at the beginning.
He just wanted to take a pill with his friends
that releases a flood of serotonin hormones
in the brain, so those guys will dance all
night, look a bit weird, and tell everyone
they love them.
If that kid goes to prison, there’s a good
chance he’ll go back.
He might even join a gang in there, or make
some bad decisions inside.
Do you think virtual prison would be better
for him?
You have to think about the traumatized children
who later use drugs to reduce their anxiety,
or the poor kids who turn to shoplifting.
Will prison really improve these people, as
it is now?
The statistics say no.
In fact, they say it will make them worse.
And you, our dear viewers, YOU are paying
for their incarceration.
You’ll also pay for the second time they
go back.
As for the third time, well that’s three
strikes, and someone who’s never been that
much of a menace to society could now be looking
at serious time... and again, you’ll be
footing the bill.
Now go watch a video about Britain's so called
most violent prisoner, the “Man So Violent
Even Other Prisoners Fear Him.”
And then watch, “Why Prisoner Proven Innocent
Can't Be Released.”
