Prediction and Punishment: Critical Report on Carceral AI

Abstract

Prediction and Punishment is a report collectively envisioned, researched, written, and edited by a group of critical researchers and activists to expose key issues at the intersection of the carceral system and artificial intelligence (AI). The report emerged from a cross-disciplinary workshop on carceral AI that took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in February 2024. The report's aim is to provide a resource for researchers, community organizers, and policy-makers to get informed about the impacts of technologies designed to police, incarcerate, surveil, and control human beings. As a community, we stand against the use of carceral technologies. 

This report begins with an introduction that provides some context and definitions for our analysis and then continues in two main parts:

Part 1: State of Carceral AI discusses our core takeaways, including the ways that the advent of carceral AI is (and is not) novel; the perils of centering the conversation around algorithmic bias; the pernicious role of public-private partnerships; the spread of carceral AI globally and beyond the criminal legal system; the unpredictable human element in how carceral AI is used; and the incompatibility between algorithmic reforms and liberatory futures.

Part 2: Recommendations and Paths Forward discusses our suggested routes to mitigate the use and expansion of carceral AI. These include divesting from carceral technology and reducing the size and scope of the carceral system through low-tech interventions; blocking the rebranding of scrapped carceral AI systems under new names; expanding how we think about 'evidence-based' policy; increasing public access to information about carceral AI systems; building technology that intentionally centers our values; and community building to resist carceral AI.

Keywords: criminal legal system, AI, carceral system, algorithm