An Introduction to the Center for Court Innovation’s Technology Principles
We do it whether we realize it or not — we test out new types of technology every day. If you’ve ever downloaded a million different task manager apps like Todoist, Google Keep, and Wunderlist only to discover that the only effective means of managing your life is a bullet journal, then you probably know what I’m referring to. As technology users, every day we identify problems with new apps, websites, or gadgets and maybe even offer feedback. We notice when things simply aren’t working for us, we move onto another option.
As with any type of innovation, technology in the criminal justice sector has the potential to be helpful, harmful, or just plain annoying, and we need to be ready to apply proven techniques to ensure the best result for everyone touched by it.
For the past several years, a working group consisting of technologists, criminal justice practitioners and policy experts from the Center for Court Innovation, Open Society Foundations, CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG), Robin Hood and Blue Ridge Labs @ Robin Hood has explored how technology can be used to reduce the jail population, and how it can be used most effectively and ethically in the criminal justice setting. The group has researched technologies ranging from smartphone apps to leveraging flip phones, and much, much more. We collected data, interviewed practitioners across the United States, visited jurisdictions and vendors, and even implemented a project using electronic monitoring.
After a couple of years we have identified common issues which led us to create a set of Technology Principles. These principles pull from existing methodologies and ethical guidelines across different sectors (especially the technology sector), with the unique needs of the criminal justice sector in mind. While our ultimate goal is the same as that in any other sector — we seek technologies that can help us solve problems — there are some unique, critical, differences: notably, important decisions are usually being made by the agency that is procuring or implementing the technology, however the justice-involved person, who is equally impacted by the technology, has little to no ability to directly input in the decision-making, and provide feedback. The principles we created pull from current best-practices in the technology sector, while reflecting this unique situation.
We look forward to engaging in conversations with you about these Principles! You can view them here: The 10 Principles for Criminal Justice Technology.
