By Daniel J. Simms, Independent Journalist/Author/Podcast Host/Activist. www.DefundDOC.net.
On January 20, 2020, The New York Times published an exposé on the company Clearview A.I., Inc.. The frightening article announced that Clearview created artificial intelligence (A.I.) facial recognition software "[t]hat could end your ability to walk down the street anonymously." (See: The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It. Kashmir Hill. The New York Times. Jan. 18, 2020. http://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearviewprivacy-facial-recognition.html). Surprising futuristic technologies that we only envisioned through movies will soon be ubiquitous in our lives. For example, there are already Reem RoboCops patrolling the streets of Dubai. Autonomous drones are delivering parcels, fast food, and groceries. Military drones can locate and drop bombs on enemy combatants in far-off locations. Law enforcement drones can follow, film, and perhaps soon apprehend you. Humanoid Gemonoid Hi-4 robots with fully articulating fingers, hands, toes, and legs can virtually do any task or job that you can, are on the horizon. Autonomous vehicles are already traveling our streets as taxis. Autonomous freight trucks will be fully deployed in the next ten years. Additionally, fifty unique robots are being developed today that will reach into every aspect of our daily lives. (See: WE: Robot. David Hambling. Aurum). A.I. will invade all aspects of our lives. Even medical care will be fundamentally changed. Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, the research partners aspired to develop software capable of anticipating patients' future healthcare needs. If successful, the software promised to reduce medical complications, eliminate unnecessary hospital stays, and, ultimately, improve patients' healthcare outcomes." (See: Dinerstein v. Google, LLC, 73 F.4th 502 (7th Cir. 2023)). We must embrace our pending technically advanced society while also remaining cautious of the dangers A.I. and robotics pose for our civilization. Honestly, the question we must all ask is: what will happen to our unemployed and impoverished fellow Americans or their children? History can tell us.
One of the most dangerous outcomes we face is not even on the public's radar. No one has beat the drum on the most probable dark future A.I. and robotics will usher in. First of all, we all intuitively know A.I. will cause massively high layoffs. Anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant or deceptive. Predictions suggest that sixty to sixty-five percent of all jobs today will be obsolete due to redundancy. A.I. robots will be able to do practically any form of work humans can. Retaining humans will become a liability and a drag on businesses. It will become literally against their business interests to keep humans employed. Widespread layoffs will result. The coming huge countrywide unemployment and the corresponding deep poverty will wreak havoc on our people's future. History tells us that rampant criminalization and imprisonment of the unemployed or their children will ensue. (See: Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor. 120, 120-27. (2003). Tara Herivel and Paul Wright. eds.). When masses of people are out of work and impoverished, crime is suddenly more attractive or it becomes a cultural norm, especially when the alternative is starvation, humiliation, and beggarly status. "Most of us choose to abstain from crime in part because we have a lot to lose if we get caught...The calculus for an unemployed dropout with readily available criminal options and few licit prospects is likely to be quite different. (See: The Economist's Guide to Crime Busting. Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig. Wilson Q (Winter 2011) at 62). A.I. RoboCops will arrest millions of our people for every conceivable crime imaginable without any rest or hindrances. There will be no need for food, sleep, or even a break. A.I. RoboCops will come for you and your children with vigor. (See: Automating Inequalities: How High Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. By Virginia Eubanks. (2018)). Mass incarceration will explode. The government's elite classes will consider the unemployed impoverished as criminals" and excessive drains on society. Rather than our fellow Americans capable of rehabilitation and change. You and your children will most likely be classified in the criminal class. Keep in mind these are already commonly used practices. You and your community will be targeted. (See: Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. By Todd R. Clear). Ultimately becoming slaves of the State. (See: Slavery As Punishment: Original Public Meaning, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, and the Neglected Clause in the Thirteenth Amendment. 51 Arz. L. Rev. 983. Winter 2008. By Scott W. Howe). This is not a unique proposition. Elites in politics and law enforcement have been employing these cruel strategies for generations. "[R]uling elites used the police to control the working class communities and maintain the existing order of capitalist relationships." (See: Policing a Class Society: The Experience of American Cities. (1865-1915) at 250-51 (1983). By Sidney L. Harring). Currently, enslavement is as common and prolific as it was pre-civil war to enslave African-Americans. The difference however is today the political and law enforcement elites are simply using crime as a pretext to enslave. African-American communities are the most over-policed and over-incarcerated populations. Convict leasing, is the practice of 'selling' the labor of state and local prisoners to private interests for State profit...The presumptive identity of black men as 'slaves' evolved into the presumptive identity of ''criminal,' and we have yet to fully recover from this historical frame." (See: Policing the Black Man. Pantheon Books (1st ed. 2017). Angela Davis). Soon however the numbers of felon slaves of all races will be astounding. DefundDOC.net has calculated based on historical data beginning in 1970's until today that half the U.S. population will have a felony record, be jailed, incarcerated, or be on some form of supervision. It is a very bleak future for you and your descendants. People incarcerated in America....are forced to work for pennies an hour with the profits going to countries, states, and private corporations, including Target, Revlon, and Whole Foods. (See: America Never Abolished Slavery. Huffington Post. (May 2, 2015). By Angela F. Chan. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angela-f-chan/america-never-abolished-slaveryb6777420.html [http://www.perma.cc/HD9K-VZBF]).
The world of technology, A.I. and robotics most specifically, is growing exponentially. Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the software applications that A.I. has already expanded to. With the advent of ChatGPT, Bard, and multiple other A.I. applications the innovative technological advancement of A.I. has burst into our consciousness. (See: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming the World. Brookings. (Apr. 24, 2018). By Darrell M. West and John R. Allen. http://www.brookings.edu/research/how-artificial-intelligence-is-transforming-the-world). Seemingly overnight a new technology capable of revolutionizing virtually all aspects of human life has invaded our world. We can use history to ascertain what our Country will face in the coming years. A similar age of mass layoffs and unemployment presages our fate. So many Americans were being fired without notice that the government had to step in. Soon legislation was enacted requiring employers to provide 60 days' notice of mass layoffs. "Congress enacted the WARN Act in response to the extensive worker dislocation of the 1970s and 1980s when companies merged, acquired, or closed without notice. (See: Watson v. Mich. Indus. Holdings, Inc., 311 F.3d 760, 765 (6th Cir. 2002)). It was not a coincidence that widespread unemployment occurred at the same time that mass incarceration detonated and burst upon an unsuspecting American population. Our people could not have anticipated how incredibly precarious life would become for our most disadvantaged citizens. "[B]etween 1965 and 2000, the U.S. prison population has swelled by 600 percent." (See: Incarceration and Social Inequality. Daedalus, Sommer 2010. Bruce Western and Becky Pettit). The horrible explosion of caging our people did not stop there. "[T]he U.S. prison population has increased 76 percent between 1999 and 2010 resulting in a 37 percent overcapacity." (See: At the Crossroads of the Three Branches: The U.S. Commission's Attempts to Achieve Prison Reforms amid Inter-Branch Power Struggles. J. L. Pol'y (2011). http://www.papers.ssrn/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1773045). Keep in mind these are not abstract imaginary figures. These are our sons, daughters, neighbors, and descendants who are being incarcerated. (See: Sentencing Our Children to Die in Prison: Global Law and Practice. 42 U.S.F.L. Rev. 983. (2008). By Connie De La Vega and Michelle Leighton). The unfairly long sentences being handed out reflect the state's self-serving interest in free slave labor. (See: State Constitutionalism and the Crisis of Excessive Punishment. 108 Iowa L. Rev. 537. (Jan. 2023). By Robert J. Smith).
Those familiar with social justice causes will find it no surprise that the first community laid off from their jobs, criminalized, and over-incarcerated are minorities. [I]n hard economic times, it has always been the minorities who have suffered the most." (See: Vulcan Pioneers, Inc. v. New Jersey Dep't of Civil Service, 588 F. Supp. 716 (May 3, 1984)). Law enforcement has a history of criminalizing minorities. Particularly by attacking their vices or weapons. [W]hile fewer published studies focus on the racial dynamics of criminal gun [or drug] laws, the evidence that we do have suggests that people of color bear the brunt of enforcement." (See: Guns and Drugs. 84 Fordham L. Rev. 2173, 2194 (2016). Benjamin Levin). Such targeted criminalization has been occurring for centuries. (See: Federal Felon-in-Possession Gun Laws: Criminalizing A Status, Disparately Affecting Black Defendants, and Continuing the Nation's Centuries-Old Methods to Disarm Black Communities. 21 CUNY L. Rev. 143, 175 (2018)). The next vulnerable community on the social pecking order is also no surprise: those with mental health disorders. At midyear 2005 more than half of all prison and jail inmates had a mental health problem, including 705,600 in State prisons, 78,800 in Federal prisons, and 479,900 in local jails. These estimates represented 56% of State prisoners, 45% of Federal prisoners, and 64% of local jail inmates. (See: Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates. 1 (2006). U.S. Dept of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Doris J. James and Lauren E. Glaze). Substance use disorder sufferers, particularly those with behavioral health problems that result in violence, are widely preyed on and criminalized by mass incarceration. Documenting notable connection between chronic drug users and violence. Half of violent offenders in State prisons were dependent upon drugs. (See: Perpetrators, Victims, and Observers of Violence: Chronic and Non-chronic Drug Users. 16 J. Interpersonal Violence 890, 906 (2001). H. Virginia McCoy, et al.). As you can imagine these statistics are more than numbers to me as my case was a botched drug deal turned alleged armed robbery. Yet the government omitted that in the trial and appellate rulings. (See: State of Washington v. Daniel J. Simms, 171, Wn. 2d 1011, 227 P3d 295, 2010 Wash. LEXIS 216). No one was severely hurt. The whole incident revolved around substance usage and the prosecutor unfairly withheld that evidence from the defense and the jury. Which is a Brady violation. (See: Prosecutors Hide, Defendants Seek The Erosion of Brady Through Defendant Due Diligence Rule. 60 U.C.L.A L. Rev. 138, 141, 147-56 (2012). Kate Weisburd). Nevertheless, I have rotted in prison for almost twenty years despite the injustices. Without money and power, things like this are commonplace for our people. As a penniless ex-foster child, suffering from mental health problems, with no one having the power to stand up for me, it is no surprise I ended up with a de facto death sentence. There are many organizations dedicated to exposing and reversing these cruelly long sentences. (See: The Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration. Decarcerate PA. http://www.decarceratepa.info/CADBI [http://www.perma.cc/Q7EJ-FA59] "Describing a coalition of organizations dedicated to abolishing 'death by Incarceration,' or a mandatory life without parole sentence). Essentially the State is murdering me with lifelong imprisonment. Even though no one was proportionately murdered for me to deserve such harsh finality. Sadly similarly situated Defendants across the whole country are preyed on regularly like this. Largely to feed the dark beast of modern prisoner slavery. It was The intersection of punishing mental health and poverty is especially alarming. Psychiatric Disorders affect at least 30 to 40 percent of all people experiencing homelessness. (See: Punishing Homelessness. 22 New Crim. L. Rev. 99, 109-10 (2019). Sara K. Rankin). For decades the government has had mass media and politicians demonizing and vilifying troubled Americans. Using propaganda to justify their mass enslavement scheme. (See: The Unconstitutionality of Government Propaganda. By Caroline Mala Corbin. 81 Ohio St. L. J. 815 (2019)). Stigmatizing troubled Americans so thoroughly and effectively that most citizens have deep prejudices and biases toward prisoners. Virtually every story that begins with criminal, violent, or felon is unconsciously judged negatively. Even if the person spoken about in the story is a familiar neighboring young adult you watched grow up. All of a sudden the familiarity is forgotten and the neighbor is criminalized. This is by design. Years of propaganda and manipulation have ensured such groupthink. (See: Groupthink: A Study in Self Delusion. Christopher Booker. Bloomsbury. "Booker sheds new light on the remarkable--and worrying---effects of 'groupthink,' and its influence on our society"). Reading a story with prejudicial words provokes and inflames. Aiding the government in pursuit of expanding their slave class. Even though mass incarceration is against the self-interests of families and communities. Not only are they being separated from their incarcerated loved ones but the labor drain on the community is also harmful. Despite this, mass incarceration has exploded from the nineteen seventies until today. Which is a harbinger of the coming time bomb of mass incarceration detonating upon our people due to A.I. and robotics. There is no limit to the technological law enforcement tools that will be used against you. Only movies like Minority Report which alluded to predictive policing could come close to what is on our horizon. (See: Policing Predictive Police. 94 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1109 (2017). By Andrew G. Ferguson). The coming age of massive unemployment and corresponding poverty will result in the same historical blueprint used for decades. Essentially mass incarceration of all the excess out-of-work bodies. Which will most assuredly be you, your child, or your descendants. (See: Yes, the U.S. Locks People Up at a Higher Rate Than Any Other Country. Wash. Post (July 7, 2015). By Michelle Ye Hee Lee. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/07/yesu-s-locks-people-up-at-a-higher-rate-than-any-other-country/ [http://www.perma.cc/P92Z-8GG9]).
The next Crime War and the coming wave of mass incarceration will be exceedingly worse than the last one. This is astonishing since the U.S. has already surpassed all records regarding imprisoning its citizens. ...[T]he war on drugs made America the world's biggest incarcerator. (See: The War on Drugs and the Surveillance Society. ACLU (June 6, 2011). By Jay Stanley. http://www.aclu.org/blog/smart-justice/sentencing-reform/war-on-drugs-and-surveillance-society [http://www.perma.cc/92XF-JYGP]). The truth is for decades the government, politicians, and mass media have framed the Crime War quite effectively and in the most stark and alienating fashion. Nowhere is that more visible than the vilification of drugs and the drug epidemic. (See: Race, Class, and the Framing of Drug Epidemics. CONTEXTS. (Fall 2017). At 46, 48. By Rebecca Tiger). The next is the war on the poor and the crimes they commit. (See: From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration. (2016). By Elizabeth Hinton). Virtually everyone in prison was impoverished before being caught in the government trap. We are all essentially products of our environments, parenting, culture, and experiences.
Free will is not as free as one might think. Sure many poor people do not commit crimes, but that just means they had some differing factors. The truth is humans are not islands or raised in vacuums. Outside influences are the main manner our people are shaped. So everyone is only behaving or reacting based on outside influences that shaped them long before. That is why many Judicial/Prison Reform Activists, including this author, believe our troubled people should be governed under a new behavioral health justice system. Where they are treated for their mental health needs and educated in marketable careers. (See: Defund D.O.C.: Turn All Prisons Into Treatment and Career Centers. By me, Daniel J. Simms). We are far from such an advanced civilization. Although not because the citizenry would be against it. Rather because politicians are continuing to lead our country down a dark road of exploitation instead. (See: Prisons of Poverty: Uncovering the Pre-Incarceration Incomes of the Imprisoned. Prison Policy Initiative. By Bernadette Rabuy and Daniel Kopt. (July 9, 2015). http://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html [http://www.perma.cc/2J89-V69W]).
Abusing their bully-pulpit politicians, mass media, and the government has fully stigmatized our troubled people. (See: Ending Stigma: The Long-Term Effects of Incarceration on Health. 48 J. Health and Soc. Behav. 115, 115-16 (2007). By Jason Schnittker and Andrea John). Demonizing them so completely that even their loved ones may believe that they deserve the horrible systemic oppression, enslavement, brutality, and humiliation that is our modern criminal justice system. (See: Prisons are Violent And Dehumanizing, in America's Prisons: Opposing Viewpoints. 67 (D. Bender, B. Leon, and B. Szumski 4th ed. 1985). By Steve Lerner). With the new A.I. technologies, no one is safe. Vulnerable communities need governmental help to ensure new A.I. software does not unfairly prey on them but such interventions are unlikely. (See: Unfair Artificial Intelligence: How the FTC Intervention Can Overcome the Limitations of Discrimination. 171 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1, 6 (2023). Andrew D. Selbst and Solon Barocas). Those relying on the government to protect them from unfair or predatory criminal justice A.I. applications may be sadly disappointed. Algorithms will soon largely determine whether you get arrested, bail, released, or even potentially decide if you are guilty or not. With very little, if any, oversight or access to the algorithms or technologies. (See: Access to Algorithms. 88 Fordham L. Rev. 1265 (2020). Hannah Bloch-Wehba). Surprisingly Constitutional expectations for due process could even be outsourced. (See: Technological Due Process. 85 Wash. U. L. Rev. Rev. 1249 (2008). Danielle Keats Citron). There are so many risks associated with this new world of dependence upon technology. One hazard amongst many is the inherent human prejudices and biases finding their way into the A.I. software and robotics. (See also: The Evolution and Impact of Bias in Human and Machine Learning Algorithms Interaction. 15 Plos One 1, 1 (2020). Wenlong Sun, Olfa Nasraoui, and Patrick Shafto). Those prejudices and biases will further stigmatize and harm voiceless and powerless vulnerable communities. (See also: Digital Dystopia: How Algorithms Punish the Poor. GUARDIAN. (Oct. 14, 2019). Ed Pilkington. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/Oct/14/automating-poverty-algorithms-punish-poor [http://www.perma.cc/Y25Q-2WHZ]). If you believe you can not be criminalized you are highly mistaken. Most likely you already are. The government merely needs A.I. to connect the reams of your data to the applicable crime. (See: You're (Probably) a Federal Criminal. Alex Kozinski and Misha Tseytlin). There are so many laws on the books across the Country that practically every American has committed some offense. Even if you are an upstanding citizen. That still does not matter. Innocence is largely irrelevant in our criminal justice system. (See: Is Innocence Irrelevant? Collateral Attack on Criminal Judgments. 38 U. Chi. L. Rev. 142, 160. Henry Friendly). F. Lee Bailey, a renowned trial attorney stated, that once the wheels of justice start rolling innocence begins to be progressively less relevant. The endlessly broad and ceaselessly growing criminal law codes, both Federal and State, can implicate and inculpate anyone no matter how guiltless they are. Studies have propounded extensively on this scary fact. (See: You Might Be Committing a Federal Crime, Heritage Found. (Dec. 17, 2010). Robert Alt. http://www.perma.cc/WT9S-8WPT). Every misstatement or lie you may have made inadvertently, or intentionally, on social media, email, websites, or any other electronic platform which another relies on is a felony. (See 18 U.S.C.§ 1343 Wire Fraud). Likewise similarly using the U.S. Postal mail is a felony. (See: 18 U.S.C. §1341 Mail Fraud) If you have ever inflated or embellished your income on a bank account statement, credit card contract, or loan documents, that is a felony. (See: 18 U.S.C. §1344 Bank Fraud). Do not put the wrong monetary amounts on your tax forms either as that is a felony. (See: 18 U.S.C. §287 Tax Fraud). The list of offenses that could entrap virtually anyone is extremely frightful. They are hugely broad felonies that can easily ensnare you and your descendants.
Moreover, now A.I. can gather enough circumstantial evidence from all the vast databases, social media accounts, surveillance videos, and countless other sources to expose wrongdoing or perhaps even manufacture a crime and find you guilty of it. See: A.I. Is Sending People to Jail--And Getting it Wrong. MIT Tech Rev. (Jan. 21, 2019). By Karen Hao. http://www.technologyreview.com/s/612775/algorithms-criminal-justice-ai [http://www.perma.cc/3G9H-LMZ2]). Just a glance at the panoply of technologies arrayed against you will shock your consciousness. (See: Digitizing the Carceral State. 132 Harv. L. Rev. 1695, 1700 (2019). By Dorothy E. Roberts). The knowledge that these new technologies are all created to arrest, jail, imprison, and enslave you, or your children, is extremely alarming. Robolawyers are already here. ...[DNP is] Billing itself as 'The World's First Robot Lawyer,' DNP's website offers legal services related to marriage annulment, speeding ticket appeals, canceling timeshares, breaking leases, breach of contract disputes, defamation demand letters, copyright protections, child support payments, restraining orders, revocable living trusts, and standardized legal documents" (See: Miller King, LLC v. Do Not Pay, Inc., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209825). Next, it will be A.I. robot judges and robomagistrates dispensing supposed justice. With the incredible increase of criminals needing adjudication robojudges will have to be utilized. Robocorrectional officers will roam the prison grounds. The next Crime War inflicted upon us will not need many humans to perpetuate it. Only enough humans to keep the system efficient and running smoothly will be needed. Additional factors are conspiring to incarcerate our people that you need to be aware of. Corruption also has to be factored in as law enforcement has long used unsavory and illegal tactics to pin cases on our people. (See: Innocents Convicted: An Empirically Justified Factual Wrongful Conviction Rate. 97 J. Crim. L. and Criminology. 761, 804 n.2 (2007). By D. Michael Risinger). Police have a troubling history of entrapping fellow Americans. (See: Breaking the Law to Enforce the Law: Undercover Police Participation in Crime. 62 Stan. L. Rev. 155, 190-91 (2009). By Elizabeth E. Joh). Overstating intent, culpability, or criminality is another way law enforcement ensures our people are viciously prosecuted. (See: Undercover Policing, Overstated Culpability. 34 Cardozo L. Rev. 1401, 1446-51 (2013). By Eda Katherine Tinto).
Tragically nonstop surveillance over whole cities is also upon us. (See: Eyes Over Compton: How Police Spied Over a Whole City. Atlantic. (Apr. 21, 2014). http://www.theAtlantic.com/national/archive/2014/04/sheriffs-deputy-compares-drone-surveillance-of-to-big-brother/360954/). Whether through doorcams, bodycams, drones, smartphones, or fixed video cameras, amongst many others. (See: In More Cities, a Camera on Every Corner, Park and Sidewalk. NPR. Steve Henn. (June 20, 2013, 2:57 a.m.) http://www.NPR.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/06/20/191603369/TheBusiness-Of-Surveillance-Cameras). Even satellites high in the sky are surveillance policing tools. Your image can be uploaded to A.I. software that can pinpoint your location simply using video footage. A.I. will be able to cherry-pick moments in surveillance video, finger you for crimes, and recommend your prosecution. (See: Hope, Hype, and Fear: The Promise and Potential Pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence in Criminal Justice. 15 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 543, 550-1 (2018)). Nothing can stop an out-of-control surveillance State. Even driving down the streets is surveilled. (See: You Are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used to Track Americans Movements. ACLU, http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/you-are-being-tracked-how-license-plate-readers-are-being-used-record). If you believe leaving the shores of the U.S. by boat will save you from the coming criminal roundup then you are wrong. (See: Can A.I. Catch Criminals At Sea? TEDTalks Daily. (Apr. 8, 2024). Dyhia Belhabib). Not even your phone conversations and call histories are safe from law enforcement using them to imprison you. (See: Stingray Spying: FBI Secret Deal with Police Hides Phone Dragnets from Courts. The Guardian. (Apr. 10, 2015). Jessica Glenza and Nicky Woolf. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/10/stingray-spying-fbi-phone-dragnet-police). Police can use your cellphone microphone and video camera to listen and even film you. They can easily track your travels live, or years, down the road based on cell tower geolocation data. We are embarking on a very ugly future for our people. It gets worse though, when you get sick or injured, law enforcement will be tracking and spying on your drug prescriptions. "In twenty-one States and the District of Columbia, police can access the database as a matter of course some have their log-ins to use at their discretion. (See: Guess Who's Tracking Your Prescription Drugs? MARSHAL PROJECT. By Beth Schwartzapfel. (August 2, 2017). http://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/08/02/guess-whos-tracking-your-prescription-drugs [http://www.perma.cc/4TFZ-TLTA]). Basically, if any elite politician or law enforcement officer wants you imprisoned, then your life will be forfeit, and you will be condemned to a very traumatizing reality of slavery. (See: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Joy Angela Degruy). Beyond the obvious danger of surveillance incriminating you in a crime. There are other ancillary effects that you need to be aware of. Surveillance impinges upon your freedom of speech. When you believe governmental A.I., robotics, or drones are watching you and constantly recording your activity it will cause you to think twice about criticizing them. That is a widely known phenomenon called a chilling effect. This was studied in the public debates over the legalization of marijuana. While in the privacy of their homes, with family and friends, they may say one thing, but in public they remain silent. (See: The Effects of Threat of Surveillance and Actual Surveillance on Expressed Opinions Towards Marijuana. 111 J. Soc. Psychol. 49, 59 (1980). Gregory L. White and Phillip G. Zimbardo). But there are many other ways surveillance can affect you. For instance, some studies suggest those under surveillance may conform their opinions and speech to avoid retaliation or persecution. (See: The Conforming Effect: First Amendment Implications of Surveillance, Beyond Chilling Speech. 49 U. Rich. L. Rev. 465, 518 (2015). By Margot Kaminsky and Shane Witnov).
There are so many dangers that face Americans. None of them are more insidious than your own government using crime as a pretext to enslave you. (See: The Problem With Pretext. 85 Dev. U. L. Rev. 503. (2008) By The Honorable Timothy M. Tymkovichfn, Tenth Circuit Judge). Fredrick Douglas, a hero of the anti-slavery movement, foresaw that slavery was an evil practice that would not die easily. "[S]lavery has been fruitful in giving itself names....and you and I and all of us had better wait and see what new form this old monster will assume, in what new skin this old snake will come forth next." (See: Frederic Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings. 577, 578. The Need for Continuing Anti-Slavery Work. Phillip S. Foner and Yuval Taylor eds., Lawrence Hill Books 1999. (1950-75)). Frederic Douglass words have come true in the form of the wicked mass incarceration system we know today. [T]he formation of the prison industrial complex is 'related to,' though 'distinct from,' histories of racialized chattel slavery. (See: Slavery and Prisons--Understanding the Connections. 27 Soc. Just. (Fall 2000) at 195, 196. By Kim Gilmore). The sadness is that unless we organize and cast this corrupt evil system off we will be putting the yoke of slavery on our children and descendants. (See: The School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Business Side of Incarcerating, Not Educating, Students in Public Schools. 68 Ark. L. Rev. 55, 57, 66-68, 73 (2015)). The government has a huge pecuniary slave labor incentive to make sentences as long as possible. Exploiting the public's ignorance, prejudice, or indifference they easily enacted unfairly long sentences in the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Essentially killing our people, particularly our children, with death by mass enslavement. (See: Sentencing Our Children to Die in Prison: Global Law and Practice. 42 U.S.F.L. Rev. 983. (2008). By Connie De La Vega and Michelle Leighton). The segments of society that will bear the brunt of our harsh and unfair system in the coming future are the same that are bearing it today. The working and poor classes. Which includes minorities and the mentally ill.
This is the doomsday future that is truly pending for citizens of the United States of America. With the laws and technologies currently available there is no limit to the amount of people that can be herded into mass incarceration. With new technologies on-boarding daily the growth could be even more dramatic. The fact is this strategy has already been deployed with resounding success in the past. Simply staying on the historical trajectory we have been on since the nineteen seventies will ensure half our country will become felon slaves within fifty years. That is if we just stay the course. Of course, if the technologies are used with more vigor than the past Crime Wars then the numbers of mass incarceration casualties will be astronomical. Thankfully organizations like www.DefundDOC.net are dedicated to organizing and propelling a future worthy of those who inherit it. It can not be done with less vigor than those that intend to enslave us. We must achieve massive unity. Many people need to organize with www.DefundDOC.net against mass incarceration. Our goals are transparent and reasonable. We seek to decriminalize all victimless crimes. Particularly ending the drug war. (See: Ending the War on Drugs: By the Numbers. CTR FOR AM. PROGRESS. (June 27, 2018). By Betsy Pearl. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2018/06/27/452819/ending-war-drugs-numbers/ [http://www.perms.cc/BC93-REYW]). Many have advocated for legalizing drugs and now is the time to implement reforms. (See: Legalize It All: How to Win the War on Drugs. Harper's Mag. (Apr. 16 2016). At 22, 22. By Dan Baum). The data on how badly mass incarceration affects our people is egregious and downright criminal. (See: Confronting the Disabling Effects of Imprisonment: Towards Prehabilitation. 45 Soc. Jus. 27 (2018). By Diana Johns). The severity and harshness common today in penological policies does nothing to reduce crime, it is time to use evidence and data-based strategies, and reform is widely overdue. (See: Imprisonment and Crime: Can Both be Reduced? 10 Criminology and Pub. Pol'y 13, 37 (2010). Steven N. Durlauf. "It appears to be primarily in the certainty of punishment, not its severity, that deterrent power lies"). There are hundreds of thousands of prisoners released and data shows most either reoffend or die within a short amount of time. [F]ormerly incarcerated people are 3.5 more likely to die than other State residents after their release from custody." (See: Release From Prison--A High Risk of Death for Former Inmates. 356 NEW ENG. J. MED. 157, 157 (2007). By Ingrid A. Binswanger, Marc F. Stern, Richard A. Deyo, Patrick J. Heagerty, Alan Cheadle, Joann G. Elmore, and Thomas D. Koepsell). We believe this is due to a lack of chemical dependency/mental health treatment.
These are the noble and overdue areas DefundDOC.net seeks to reform. Will you please join our struggle? (See: Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time 11. By James Kilgore. The New Press (2015)).
You can continue to educate yourself on the injustices and inequities inflicted upon you by simply subscribing to our free podcast and blog. www.DefundDOC.net. Every new subscriber will receive a free digital copy of one of my books: "DEFUND D.O.C.: TURNING ALL PRISONS INTO TREATMENT AND CAREER CENTERS," or, "THE ART OF LIVING: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN LIFE AND BUSINESS, I LEARNED IN PRISON."
Become a Reality TV Star! We are excited to invite you to be a part of history through a revolutionary new reality show: LOVE AND PRISON ACTIVISM. The reality show seeks to inspire prison reform by humanizing prisoners and those who love them. Showcasing their struggles and highlighting activism will assuredly change the narrative and allow space for true reform to occur. You do not need prior experience in mass incarceration to be a part of the show. All you need is a love for the American people. Therefore everyone is invited to audition. Moreover due to the immense need for people to attend rallies and protests in their States everyone can appear and be featured in the show. So do not miss your opportunity to take part in this groundbreaking effort. We will be launching it on July 4th to coincide with our Country's previous fight for independence and freedom. This new fight we are embarking on is critical to realign U.S. policy with the people's demands. Foremost is ending prisoner slavery, turning all prisons into treatment and career centers, and reducing all non-homicide offenses down to a maximum of eight to ten years. You can receive all updates and news regarding the pending social justice reality show by easily subscribing to the podcast and blog. www.DefundDOC.net.
If you would like to support this overdue social justice mission you can also purchase items from our branded collections. Currently, we have sweatshirts, tee-shirts, and more on our website, on Cadmus Publishing (coming soon), Etsy, and our tiktok store. All profits go towards advancing your interests and the interests of the American people. Remember supporting this cause is merely an insurance policy. Because you, or your descendants, have a fifty-fifty percent chance of going to prison within the next fifty years based on the historical growth of mass incarceration since the 1970s.
You can also purchase the special limited-time offer "Supporters Book Bundle" of all three of my digital books: "HOPELESS IN SEATTLE: A FOSTERKID'S MANIFESTO," "DEFUND D.O.C.," and "THE ART OF LIVING." All for the price of one book: $14.99. If you buy all three printed versions on Amazon or other booksellers it would cost you double that amount. Plus it will help us further the social justice campaign. www.DefundDOC.net.