For the past two years, inmates in Finland have been involved in artificial intelligence annotation tasks, including labelling and classifying data, as part of a rehabilitation programme. In collaboration with Metroc, a market data startup, the initiative seeks to reduce reoffending rates by equipping prisoners with valuable, contemporary skills.

Rather than engaging in traditional prison tasks like sewing, cleaning, or laundry, inmates in three closed prisons in Finland — two male and one female — have been offered the chance to participate in this type of digital work. Artificial intelligence systems require human input for development, particularly for languages like Finnish, which is spoken by only five million people globally.

Jussi Virnala, founder of Metroc, told Euronews: "As our software tries to interpret text material and different details about construction products, we need to teach the AI language models to understand Finnish language and to understand construction context and construction questions and topics."

Participants in the programme are provided with specialised laptops and are tasked with answering simple questions, such as "Is the text about granting a building permit?"

Dr Tuukka Lehtiniemi, a sociologist at the University of Helsinki, has expressed support for the project, stating: "It's good to give the prisoners something to do, to have a structure in the day, to help them so they adjust to the eventual release back to civilian life, so that you would have slightly more likelihood of not committing more crimes when you are released in civilian life and data work, in general, is seen as really helpful in this."

Both male and female prisoners are paid for their participation, although their earnings are less than those in equivalent roles outside prison. One inmate involved in the artificial intelligence annotation programme, nicknamed Robin, told Euronews that he chose the job "to spend time for meaningful activities. Artificial Intelligence was a new topic for me, and it aroused my interest. Also, to earn money."

Finnish authorities have highlighted the Smart Prison project's uniqueness, attracting interest from other Nordic and European countries seeking consultation on similar digital rehabilitation initiatives.

Source: euronews.com