Technology: Yikes! Another Orwellian application of technology in the U.S. criminal justice system: Ankle-monitors that can record whole conversations without people's knowledge or consent! ' Nneka Ewulonu, a civil rights attorney based out of Atlanta, Georgia, writes in The Appeal, in a commentary headed, "Private Tech Surveillance Companies Are Taking Over Prisons": "Incarcerated Americans are being watched like never before. Private American companies are rapidly digitizing prison mail. Some ankle-monitors can record whole conversations without people's knowledge or consent. Most recently, at the end of last month, a group of American civil-rights organizations urged the federal government to crack down on the use of surveillance software called Verus, which transcribes imprisoned people's phone-calls and scans the conversations for key phrases."

PASSAGE OF THE DAY: 

"Ever since the 18th Century philosopher Jeremy Bentham developed what he called "the panopticon," a building where a central figure could monitor the ongoings of an entire building, prisons have kept incarcerated individuals under strict monitoring. This reinforces a culture of fear and paranoia in modern facilities. Phone calls are tracked and recorded. Physical mail is scanned. Cameras and guards alike permeate the premises ready to catch and punish infractions, no matter how arbitrary or even discriminatory the consequences may be. To an incarcerated person, privacy is fantasy not found within the four walls of a prison cell.  But in the last decade or so, private technology companies have invented wholly new ways to invade the lives of imprisoned people."

COMMENTARY: "Private tech surveillance companies are taking over prisons," by Nneka Ewulonu, published by 'The Appeal," on March 8, 2022:  (Nneka Ewulonu (they/them) is a civil rights attorney based out of Atlanta, Georgia. All views contained in Nneka's writing represent them alone and not their employer.)

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