Detect radicalization in prison with software – CBC

         A Quebec company offers software that can identify individuals who are at risk of radicalization in prison and becoming violent extremists. Several countries have expressed interest in the product, but some experts are skeptical.
     

         Éric Le Geoff is President of Abilis Solutions, a Montreal company that produces software especially for the management of the prison population. Its software tools employees already use in marketing analyzing “data” to “understand the behavior” of individuals.
     

         “These are tools that enable business intelligence to segment individuals,” he said in an interview with Radio-Canada. Except here, it does not seek to determine whether consumers will buy a product, but whether a prisoner is a particular risk.
     

         “We will have programs they follow [...] units where they are, incidents in which they are involved, visitors, visitors who. One is able to [...] relationships to all the events linked to the life of a prisoner [...] minute by minute. ”
          – The Eric Geoff, President of Abilis Solutions
     

         On his computer screen, one sees dots of different colors that represent fictitious prisoners, connected by colored lines. Everything looks like a spider web. Mr. Geoff’s customers for a number of American states, who use its software for managing gangs in their prisons. Now he tries to market a version that can detect the prisoners who are radicalized.
     

         “Solutions were actually developed that identify those most likely to become radicalized in prison. ”
          – The Eric Geoff, President of Abilis Solutions
     

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         Criminologist Jean-Claude Bernheim is skeptical. “The radicalization does not occur because you give a handshake or someone you meet, especially in a closed environment,” he said. But he recognizes that the prison system at the provincial level is too computerized. “There’s a lot of communication problems and information transfers,” he says.
     

         Stéphane Berthomet, an expert in police affairs, believes that there should mainly rely on human resources.
     

         “The increase in the number of imams or chaplains in prisons would better understand these issues, to raise up the information. ”
          – Stéphane Berthomet, an expert in police matters
     

         Éric Le Geoff now wants to sell its software. Of American States and some European countries have shown some interest.