S.T.O.P. x RadTech: Incarceration & Information Surveillance

S.T.O.P. x RadTech: Incarceration & Information Surveillance

Link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YlNDeqLuR4KFFyj0Vt3Wbw

In this session, we delve deeper into the rise of digital surveillance in U.S. prisons, often under the guise of information access. Jeanie Austin and Sarah Ball, who are both librarians inside of jails, will be in discussion with Kentrell Owens about the small number of prominent companies and startups that control the ICTs (information and communication technologies) that are available to people who are incarcerated and the ways in which ICTs are used for surveillance. We will also discuss how information surveillance may continue post-incarceration.

Jeanie Austin earned their PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their research interests and activities include the provision of library services to people in juvenile detentions, jails, and prisons. They primarily examine the complex political and social systems that surround this work. They are interested in the incorporation of critical praxis in LIS and in the evaluation of technology’s roles in carceral institutions and policing practices.

Sarah Ball has worked as a public librarian inside jails and prisons in New York for nine years. She works toward access to books and information for criminalized and incarcerated people, their families and communities, with a priority on patron privacy and autonomy.

Kentrell Owens is a Computer Science and Engineering PhD student at the University of Washington in the Security & Privacy Research Lab. He recently earned his M.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. His research area is computer security and privacy, and he’s specifically interested in the computer security and privacy needs of marginalized communities.