Korea wants robotic prison guards

[Aquaplant]

Originally Posted by iron_jones

Why the hate, bro

hate?

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

And I have huge issues with this. For once - if those robots are just for observing the inmates - why not simply install cameras. Why create something that essentially is a moving camera that is vulnerable to pranks? The only reason I can fathom is that the plans are to use these guards for more elaborate purposes than simply observing at a later time. Otherwise it does not make sense. And in that moment, that robot will have to carry weaponry, because thats what prison guards do.

Do you even know how many cameras that would need to be? Oh wait, you probably don't - let's just say, that in order to place a camera with a view of every cell and public area, you would need literally thousands. Then you need a way to monitor those, which without this will just be a human sitting there. Humans whose job is to watch dozens of CCTVs tend to get bored, and distracted, then they miss things. By having it able to move between locations and autonomously recognise trouble and THEN alert guards, things won't go missed.

Also by putting in a mediation between the prison guards and the prisoners, you cause all kinds of problems.

That's exactly opposite the point of what mediation does. Seriously, what?!

I guess in US prisons that attitude is still there, but it is utterly wrong! Prisons are supposed to be "correctional facilities", not punishment houses.

1. This is Korea
2. If they aren't suppose to be 'punishment houses' then why are convicted criminals sent there?
On the other hand, I'd say they don't deserve to be murdered by other prisoners, exactly what this aims to prevent.

If the purpose of prisons would be to punish people and to lock them away so they cannot do any more harm, we're reverting to the early 20th century. Instead a prison should have the goal to create persons that can later again enter society.

Then why not just send them to a school?
Oh, they'll escape.

Preventing prisoners from murdering each other does not in any way damage the ability of a prison to provide education. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Do you even know how many cameras that would need to be? Oh wait, you probably don't - let's just say, that in order to place a camera with a view of every cell and public area, you would need literally thousands. Then you need a way to monitor those, which without this will just be a human sitting there. Humans whose job is to watch dozens of CCTVs tend to get bored, and distracted, then they miss things. By having it able to move between locations and autonomously recognise trouble and THEN alert guards, things won't go missed.

Wouldn't it be more efficient to tie whatever AI is running the robot into the network of CCTVs? Big Brother can't work if he's only got access to one area at any given time.

[Theorist]

just a thought... but if they really wanted to go cheaper than cameras (I'm assuming the robot guards are pretty expensive) they could hook microphones around/in all the cells, or around each group of cells. Granted, it wouldn't be perfect, but a person wouldn't have to watch the screens, just listen for any fighting/rioting sounds. And, they could just keep it a secret from the prisoners, then it would work okaly.

[Aquaplant]

Originally Posted by Human No More

That's exactly opposite the point of what mediation does. Seriously, what?!

I would chalk that one up as a mistake in forming semantically correct sentences when using fancy words. In its current form that doesn't really make much sense, unless you reverse the active verb from put to take.

Other than that, you are doing a great job filling in my place as the default pessimist, so I can go and try to get some more sleep now.

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by Clarke

Wouldn't it be more efficient to tie whatever AI is running the robot into the network of CCTVs? Big Brother can't work if he's only got access to one area at any given time.

I'd guess the cost of 10,000 CCTV cameras + networking > 50 robot chassis + networking, as a theoretical example, if the monitoring software package will be applied in either case. The robots then also allow manual viewing without having to cycle through hundreds of CCTV feeds.

Originally Posted by Theorist

just a thought... but if they really wanted to go cheaper than cameras (I'm assuming the robot guards are pretty expensive) they could hook microphones around/in all the cells, or around each group of cells. Granted, it wouldn't be perfect, but a person wouldn't have to watch the screens, just listen for any fighting/rioting sounds. And, they could just keep it a secret from the prisoners, then it would work okaly.

Whether prisoners / human rights groups will accept bugging of all cells is questionable, not to mention placing them in prime locations for neutralisation, and the cost savings would seem dubious to nonexistent depending on how it is implemented as it's a nonscalable system.
Of course, sensationalist media can always make more out of 'BUGGING PRISONERS' CELLS!!1' than 'MORE CCTV ADDED TO PLACES THAT ALREADY HAVE CCTV!'

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by Human No More

I'd guess the cost of 10,000 CCTV cameras + networking > 50 robot chassis + networking, as a theoretical example, if the monitoring software package will be applied in either case. The robots then also allow manual viewing without having to cycle through hundreds of CCTV feeds.

The monitoring software can almost certainly tell which camera it spotted the disturbance with and/or where it is. (The latter can be transformed into the former trivially.)

[Human No More]

The point is that if you want human oversight as well, it makes it harder to maintain alertness as mentioned before.

[Theorist]

So, it seems to me the cheapest option is human guards? But the problem is that some people don't want robots, but some people don't want human guards getting assaulted.