I recently took a trip out to Oakland and got to see some pretty amazing landmarks of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. One of them is the Alameda County Court building where the #FreeHuey movement reached a fever pitch and where Huey ultimately was received by the people after his 1970 murder trial acquittal. Now, almost 50 years later, we're no closer to realizing a truly unbiased justice system that fairly prosecutes the people of this country. With the industry-disrupting power of blockchain, i think we have the tools to begin reconstructing a system that has unjustly destroyed so many lives. There are many organizations involved with prison-reform, school-to-prison pipeline work, and other areas. In a country that boasts the largest prison population in the world, how can we use blockchain to help address the many blaring issues and disparities we encounter with the American criminal justice system??
i think the work of #ArtistActivists like John Legend and Jay Z should be commended then compounded with innovative blockchain solutions. Without going too far into detail, inmates are often denied simple basic rights, denied access to legal counsel, and are illegally victimized in countless other ways. Last year, the Atlanta city jail system was hacked and ransomed for over $100,000. Blockchain could offer solutions to both inmates and prison officials, and unfortunately, private owners as well.
But imagine, a decentralized and community-owned prison system that reintroduced rehabilitative and educational programs back into the jails. Imagine that that prison was run on solar energy and the inmates grew their own food in their self-sustaining agriculture program. I think that makes too much sense... but i'll get to work on it anyway.
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- Data entry / data integrity is a huge problem as some estimates are that 20% of case files including evidence may have problem with data integrity as it's handed from one party to another or entered from one system to another. Blockchain could help maintain immutability as cases make their way through the court system "supply chain."
Hieu, you're absolutely right. thank you for that insight. There are so many areas in the "justice" system that need complete overhauls; from the courts to the prisons. Evidence and witness tampering, incomplete or incorrect motion filings, and many other egregious errors have caused several people their livelihoods and their lives. We gone fix it.