In a Surveillance Society, Do Prisons Need Walls? Read more: SXSW: In a Surveillance Society, Do Prisons Need Walls?

The architects of this proposal have no particular juice with the prison industry, or a government partner itching to roll out a national pilot. It could go nowhere. But the alternative is to either do nothing, as overstuffed detention centers become cesspools (potentially turning non-violent offenders into violent ones), or else build more prisons, throwing more money at a problem that currently costs state governments a total of $51 billion per year.