Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

The State of Indiana denies one million applications for healthcare, foodstamps, and cash benefits in three years-because a new computer system interprets any mistake as "failure to cooperate." In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model to try to predict which children might be future victim...