According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the US government had installed computer software in 15 states to aid decisions on paroles. The move to shift from human parole board judges to digital risk assessment tools were the government's attempt to reduce costs in correctional facilities.
The software used to make parole decisions take in 50 or 100 decisional factors about the candidate. The software would hand out its results on the probability of the candidate violating terms of the parole.
The Journal indicated that the use of the software was effective. 2011 data showed inmate population in state and federal prisons reduced to almost 1%, a significant percentage compared to 0.01% the previous year. 2011 data showed that only 12% of inmates on parole went back to prison, as opposed to 15% in 2006. However, the Journal voiced out warnings from computer analysts that human parole boards would still need to oversee and overrule risk assessments if the results show a bias result.
Research firm Gartner Inc released a report projecting that goverments all over the world, including the US, would be spending USD449.5 billion in information technology this year. This is 0.1% lower than last year's estimates due to economic development struggles and the popularity of cloud computing services. Cloud computing services comprises of virtual storage and filing, and cloud networking, among others.
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