An Angel on your Shoulder

Dr. Amanda Bentham stepped forward and loosened the collar around the neck of inmate 60743.  “How is that?”
Jeremy, inmate 60743 at Savannah Penitentiary, cleared his throat and then took a deep breath. “That’s better. I think I can handle wearing this for a while.”
“It should be comfortable enough. In fact, some of the subjects in Germany claimed they’d forgotten they were wearing them.”
Jeremy nodded. “Until they got caught because some guard was spying.”
Dr. Bentham shook her head. “A prison guard observing the actions of inmates is not spying. The Supreme Court established that. Otherwise we wouldn’t be allowed to use guardian angel devices.”
“Joe said the Italians use them, but only during certain hours.”
“Well, here they are unrestricted.”
“So, guards can sp… can observe my actions any time, day or night?”
Dr. Bentham nodded. “A continuous video and audio feed, all day every day, for the rest of your sentence. You will be watched until you leave prison three years from now. And hopefully, three years of being...observed will discourage you from coming back here.”

The idea that he could be under some guard’s eagle eye bothered Jeremy every minute for the first two days even though he knew he probably wasn't being observed, not every second. Then it gradually bothered him less and less as small infringements went unnoticed. Plus, other prisoners were a little less violent around collared prisoners, so they'd need a reason before they stabbed him.

“Well, at least the technical aspect is working fine.” Dr. Bentham undid Jeremy’s collar and started to remove the burnt-out microphone.
“Fine? But the microphone has broken again.” After a year wearing the collar, not wearing it was strange.  
“True, but the automatic alert worked and called you in to have it replaced.” She put the microphone unit aside for later repair and picked up a replacement. “These devices are only having 73% of predicted failures. So this part is working better than expected.” She replaced the microphone unit and closed it up. “The problem…the reason there’s still violence in this prison, is monitoring.” She fitted the collar again. 
“Yeah, even with your fancy collars-”
“Devices.” she sighed. “We still have twenty inmates to every guard, so we can't watch everyone.” 
Jeremy settled the familiar weight of the collar back in place. “People can find out the guard’s meal time if they try, so it is more like forty to one.”
Dr. Bentham nodded. “Only a quarter of events are seen as they happen. We mostly catch offenders after the event, when we check records.”
Jeremy checked that he could breathe. “So, you need fewer guards on the floor, and more monitoring?”
“Even if they were willing to put every guard in front of a monitor we’d still miss more than we saw. There’d be no-one on the floor for the assaults we did see.”  Dr. Bentham sighed heavily as she dismissed Jeremy. “What we need are more guards than prisoners.”

Excited to be leaving, Jeremy started towards the gatehouse through the new monastery quiet of Savannah Penitentiary. Even after so many months the new ‘serenity’ was a little unnerving. Somehow, since the start of May every single offense was being seen, every planning session overheard. No new prisoners were coming in. None of the prisoners knew how or why, and neither the guards nor the visitors were saying anything.

Dr. Bentham met him at the gatehouse. “Well, this is the day. From inmate 60743, back to just Jeremy Keith.” She removed his collar. Staring at it, she glanced around conspiratorially. Then she whispered, seemingly to the collar, “Shows over.  Try Jackson comma Stephen.”

Noticing Jeremy's stare, she pulled out the collar's power supply. “We needed more guards than prisoners, and we found them.” She escorted him deeper into the gatehouse.
“How? Where?”
She smiled and led him down the corridor across a red line painted on the floor.  “On the Internet. The state made it legal to broadcast Angel Data Feeds.” She shook her head. “They tried television first, but that got everyone watching only about a dozen prisoners. So we turned the whole prison system into a gigantic reality website.  Now anyone, anywhere, can view what is happening to any prisoner. Parents can watch over their children, wives monitor their husbands. Everyone can help monitor a prisoner's rehabilitation, or just watch with the hope of witnessing live violence.”
“How come no-one told us?”
“We made it illegal to say anything anywhere inside the red lines.  Every visitor knows that every prisoner is being watched during visits, so anyone who tells will be caught. Eventually someone will, or we'll have to start letting in prisoners who know, but for now it just seems like magic. Without knowing how we are doing this magical feat, prisoners are having trouble circumventing it.” They arrived at the release area.  “Inmates either follow the rules, or they get punished.”

After all of the administrative business to do with his release Dr. Bentham walked him out the front door. “There are a few upsides for newly released prisoners. People like you avoid some of the stigma of being an ex-con as people have been able to watch you and judge the person you are. Managers can't do that with other potential employees so many ex-cons find offers of work waiting for them.” Dr. Bentham led him to a car. “You already have quite a few.”

Jeremy looked back. “You know, I think I’ll actually miss this place, especially Joe and Harris.”
The doctor smiled. “Well you can visit them anytime from anywhere, via our website.”