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QuriositySISU

2021-10-05

导读：监狱公司利用VR专利技术，让监狱与外相连。

Global Tel Link Corporation says the system would allow an inmate to "for a brief time, imagine himself outside or away from the controlled environment."

GTL公司（全球电信系统有限公司）声称其研发的系统会使得囚犯能够"短暂地体验高墙外的生活。"

PART01

How to realize virtual prison visits？

Prison contracting giant Global Tel Link Corporation (GTL), which handles a huge chunk of the prison communications industry, has obtained a patent for a system that essentially gives incarcerated people a taste of freedom through virtual reality.

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全球电信公司作为监狱承包商巨头，负责监狱通信行业的一大部分任务。该公司已经获得了一项专利，该专利能够通过虚拟现实技术让被监禁者们尝到自由的滋味。

“System and method for initiating a personalized virtual reality session via a virtual reality communication system in a controlled environment is disclosed," the abstract starts. Specifically, the system could be used to interact with a second virtual reality user outside the prison, the patent says, presumably as part ofa virtual visitation.

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专利摘要的开头写道：“本专利技术公开了一种在受控环境中通过虚拟现实通信系统启动个性化虚拟现实会话的系统和方法。”具体来说，该系统可用于与监狱外的第二个虚拟现实用户互动。互动内容大概会被作为虚拟探视的一部分。

The virtual reality system would also send information about the session to a "monitoring system" for keeping tabs on* communications between the inmate and the person outside the prison, the patent adds.

*keep tabs on : 例行公事地监视或观察某人或某事。

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此外，虚拟现实系统还会将这段内容信息发送给一个可以监视犯人和探视人之间对话"监控系统"。

PART02

The controversy over virtual prison visits:

Activist organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) first flagged* the patent to Motherboard*.

*flag: mark (an item) for attention or treatment in a specified way.以特定的方式标记，以引起注意或处理。

*Motherboard: VICE新闻中的一个栏目版块。

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激进组织电子前沿基金会(EFF)首先向Motherboard栏目反映了此专利在实际应用中存在的问题，以引起大家的关注。

The news signals the continued ways that contractors such as GTL try to monetize their literally captive audience of inmates as well their relatives or friends, be that through charging exorbitant fees for phone calls or by selling inmates access to entertainment via tablets.

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这一消息表明，GTL公司仍坚持尝试着从囚犯及其家属身上赚钱，比如通过收取高昂的电话费或向其提供平板电脑上的娱乐服务。

"Global Tel Link's patent for replacing in-person prison visits with virtual reality lays bare the company's ultimate goal of mediating all interactions between incarcerated people and the outside world, all while finding innovative new ways to extract a few more dollars from prisoners and their loved ones," Cooper Quintin, senior staff technologist at the EFF, told Motherboard. "These technologies also erode any last vestiges of in person connection between prisoners and their loved ones on the outside and provide prisons yet another avenue for surveillance."

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“GTL公司的这项用虚拟代替现实面对面的探监的专利，赤裸裸的揭示了该公司最终目标是为了减少囚犯与外部世界之间的所有互动，同时找到一种前无古人的新方法，从囚犯和他们的亲人身上多榨几十块钱，” 电子前沿基金会的高级技术员库珀·昆丁告诉Motherboard，“这些技术还会湮灭囚犯与外界亲人之间的最后一丝联系，但这能为监狱提供另一种监管途径。

A class action lawsuit previously targeted GTL for the company's phone call charges." Families of incarcerated individuals often pay significantly more to receive a single 15 minute call from prison than for their basic monthly phone service," the lawsuit read.

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此前曾有一起针对GTL的集体诉讼，指控该公司的通话费用过于高昂。诉讼状中写道：“被监禁者的家庭接听一个从监狱里打来的时长15分钟的电话，通常需要支付比他们每月基本的电话服务多得多的费用。

PART03

Other uses of VR in prisons:

Prisons have previously used virtual reality systems, but for the purpose of rehabilitation and training prior to an incarcerated person's release. In 2017, VICE News visited a class in Colorado using virtual reality to train inmates who had been incarcerated for decades. The idea was to get them ready for life in a world that had rapidly changed, including how to use self-service checkouts in grocery stores and doing their laundry.

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有些监狱以前也使用过虚拟现实系统，但目的是在囚犯释放前对他们进行改造和训练。2017年，VICE新闻访问了科罗拉多州的一个课程，该课程使用虚拟现实来培训被监禁了几十年的囚犯，培训内容包括如何在杂货店使用自助结账和洗衣服。该课程的想法是为了让他们能为在一个迅速变化的世界中生活做好准备。

Motherboard recently published training documents from VirTra, a company that is using virtual reality to train law enforcement agents. One session was called "Hot tub trio," where a police officer encounters people "in the backyard hot tub, playing loud music and possibly smoking marijuana."

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此外，Motherboard最近发布了VirTra公司的培训文件，该公司正在使用虚拟现实技术培训执法人员。其中一个环节被称为“热浴盆三重奏”(Hot tub trio)，一名警察“在后院的热浴盆里遇到了一些人，他们大声播放着音乐，可能还在吸食大麻。”

Researchers have even floated the idea of using virtual reality as a punishment in and of itself. A 2020 paper from the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality outlined a system in which virtual reality could be used to inflict punishment to inmates "to a greater effect or proportion than the crime he or she committed."

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研究人员甚至提出了使用虚拟现实作为惩罚的想法。《印第安纳法律和社会平等杂志》2020年的一篇论文概述了一种制度，在这个制度中，虚拟现实可以用来对囚犯实施惩罚，"其效果或比例比他/她所犯罪行更大"。