Morals, ethics, and trust: correctional officers' view of AI implementation : A study of the effects of ethical and moral values on trust and artificial implementation within the Swedish Prison and Probation service

Abstract: The use of AI  within the judicial field has  seen an increase in recent years,  and  the implementation of AI brings with it a new set of ethical and moral dilemmas that affect the field as well as the individuals working there. This study explores the moral and ethical values of correctional officers  within  the  Swedish  Prison  and  Probation service and  how their values, together  with trust  in  AI,  affect  their  perception  of a future  AI implementation.  This study conceptualizes AI as an emerging technology that has the potential to alter what it means to be a correctional officer and to transform the structure of a prison as a workplace. To answer these questions,  a mixed approach case study was performed at the  Swedish  Prison and  Probation service.    The study found that the correctional  officers’ imaginings of AI varied, ranging from simple translation systems to complex androids.  The correctional officers saw  AI  as an emerging technology with the potential to reduce the hierarchical structures of the workplace and disrupt the meaning of the correctional officer, reducing the role of the correctional officer to a prison guard. Lastly, the study concluded that the values of the correctional officers could  either act as enabling or preventive against  specific AI implementations depending on the need for allowing intrinsic human values to manifest in the work activities, both in general trust and trust in specific AI applications.    The author further discusses  the lens of judicial AI for exploring  the  Swedish  Prison and Probation service and examines the utilization of trust for  understanding  AI implementation. Further research in both AI and trust as a theoretical framework is called for.