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.”