Ontario jails are using a program that claims it can predict prisoners’ behaviour, disproportionately putting Black prisoners in higher-security facilities
There’s strong correlation in crime statistics for both severity and frequency of violent crime and being black
It is therefore not a surprise that feeding prisoner crime data, and not any race data, into a computer to determine prisoner risk has the same correlation between race and likelihood of violence
To reduce the rating based on their race would be discrimination by definition
Nah, these facts are not the issue. Omitting that the statistics themselves are the result of discrimination is kinda negligent though.
The solution wouldn’t be to try to balance out a bias in a fundamentally flawed dataset, but to establish a human system of decisionmaking that’s resilient to prejudice and bias instead of relying on machines that can only imitate their makers’ mistakes.
There’s strong correlation in crime statistics for both severity and frequency of violent crime and being black
It is therefore not a surprise that feeding prisoner crime data, and not any race data, into a computer to determine prisoner risk has the same correlation between race and likelihood of violence
To reduce the rating based on their race would be discrimination by definition
Psst don’t call out facts, you’ll be downvoted
Nah, these facts are not the issue. Omitting that the statistics themselves are the result of discrimination is kinda negligent though.
The solution wouldn’t be to try to balance out a bias in a fundamentally flawed dataset, but to establish a human system of decisionmaking that’s resilient to prejudice and bias instead of relying on machines that can only imitate their makers’ mistakes.