{"id":1550096,"date":"2024-03-12T20:50:56","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T20:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=463297"},"modified":"2024-03-12T20:50:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T20:50:56","slug":"biometrics-giant-accenture-quietly-took-over-la-residents-jail-reform-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/12\/biometrics-giant-accenture-quietly-took-over-la-residents-jail-reform-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Biometrics Giant Accenture Quietly Took Over LA Residents\u2019 Jail Reform Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In November 2020,<\/span> Los Angeles voters moved to radically transform the way the county handled incarceration. That year, Angelenos filled the streets, joining worldwide protests after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The mood was ripe for change, and a ballot initiative known as Measure J passed with 57 percent support, amending the LA County charter so that jailing people before trial would be treated as a last resort. Ten percent of the county\u2019s general fund would be allocated to community-led alternatives to incarceration that prioritized diversion, job training, and health programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But years later, as Measure J finally, slowly, gets implemented, advocates say that changes meant to divert money from law enforcement might instead just funnel it back to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case in point: In June, LA County signed over<\/a> the handling of changes to pretrial detention under Measure J to the consulting firm Accenture, a behemoth in the world of biometric databases and predictive policing. Accenture has led the development of \u201cintelligent public safety\u201d platforms and tech-enabled risk assessment tools for national security and law enforcement<\/a> agencies in the United States and around the world<\/a>, including in Israel<\/a> and India<\/a>. <\/strong>An Accenture advisory panel working on the Measure J implementation includes former federal and local law enforcement agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accenture\u2019s role was further publicized Monday after Civil Rights Corps, a nonprofit focused on injustice in the legal system, sent a letter<\/a> to the LA County Board of Supervisors calling on them<\/a> to immediately cancel the company\u2019s contract. The contract takes the county away from its stated vision for a \u201ccare first, jails last\u201d<\/a> approach and toward carceral policies, CRC wrote in the letter. \u201cAlready, Accenture has concluded that electronic monitoring is a \u2018favorable alternative\u2019 to incarceration, ignoring the reality that electronic monitoring is expensive, unsupported by social science, and demonstrably racially biased as applied in Los Angeles,\u201d the letter adds. \u201cThis is unsurprising: the consultants working on the Contract have deep ties to police departments and prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n