Git Gud: The Case for Virtual Prison Games in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Git Gud: The Case for Virtual Prison Games in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Abstract

This Article aims to reframe the debate over how best to address the enormous financial and social costs of a criminal justice system which relies on traditional, brick-and-mortar prisons to control criminal behavior. Addressing the question of responsibility, it evaluates the role that judges and prosecutors play in perpetuating a persistent cycle of crime, arrest, and incarceration in a brick-and-mortar prison system, what this Article calls “Shawshank” prisons. Two forces which have shaped the criminal justice system are singled out for special attention: the bail system and the role of race in American politics.

After comparing the cost of the current system of incarceration and a system of electronic monitoring, this Article presents the authors’ solution: a virtual prison system based upon technological solutions to increase efficiency, effectiveness, outcomes, and costs. The authors make the case for a change in mindset extending beyond the conceptualization of prisons from physical to virtual; they make the case finally for rethinking the goals that set the terms for evaluating a penal system’s success, enabling a new methodology that would allow evidence-based measurements on the progress of the offender, thus measuring the success of the intervention in real time.

In leaving the discussion there, the authors posit that this initial platform will serve to catapult further research and development, as well as exploration of the ways in which a system predicated upon individual dignity, accountability, and technological innovation will help solve the cycle of crime and punishment which socially and economically has hampered the country’s ability to provide for the needs of all its citizens.

First Page

21

Last Page

62

Publication Date

2024

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