The film "Minority Report" hit theaters more than 14 years ago. The plot deals with a futuristic police force, who are able to predict crimes before they happen. When the film premiered its genre was cast as simple science fiction, however, the themes represented in this movie are coming true today.

New algorithms are being developed by private corporations to determine crime "hot spots" and classify individuals based on how dangerous they are. The reach of these algorithms extends beyond arrests. Last year, a man named Eric Loomis was actually sentenced to a longer period of time in prison because an algorithm had deemed him to be dangerous.

For anyone who knows the history of incarceration in the U.S., this development is incredibly disturbing. Many factors went into the rise of mass incarceration, but one significant factor was the influence of private corporations who wanted to make a profit.

A new documentary called "13th" by Ava DuVernay, goes in depth into the development of mass incarceration. One factor the documentary covers is the influence of private corporations on government, all done through an organization called ALEC.

ALEC is an organization composed of major corporations and conservative lawmakers. ALEC allows corporate lobbyists to draft legislation, which they give to lawmakers, who in turn try to make that legislation law. A few years ago, a Republican lawmaker in Florida proposed a bill that had the ALEC letterhead on it.

ALEC was particularly active during the '90s where they pushed for tougher penalties on crime, including legislation like mandatory minimums and three strikes laws. Of course, several of their corporate members reaped huge financial benefits from these laws.

Now, more than 20 years later, the U.S. locks up more people than any other country in the world. The U.S. makes up five percent of the world's population but has about 25 percent of the world's prisoners. These prisoners, many of whom are non-violent offenders, are often kept in very inhumane conditions and are treated like animals.

Of course, no analysis of mass incarceration would be complete without race. The system of mass incarceration itself was justified by appealing to the myth of black criminality. Black and brown people, black men, in particular, are especially likely to be targeted and sentenced for longer periods of time. For instance, though white people do more drugs than black people, the latter are more likely to be convicted.

When we look at predictive policing, it seems hard to ignore the historical parallels. These algorithms are being developed by private corporations. Therefore, they have a significant financial stake in more intense policing. This country has a huge problem with policy brutality and over-policing. It seems likely that predictive policing will make the problem even worse.

Predictive policing algorithms also seem to be racially biased. One investigation of a particular program found that if a white man and a black man have the exact same history, the black man is 45 percent more likely to be considered more dangerous.

This also applies to algorithms that determine "crime hot spots." As writer Sena Gangadharan explained, police are far more likely to report crime in POC neighborhoods because of implicit bias and over policing of said neighborhoods. This helps justify even more over policing on false premises.

If that's not enough, predictive policing throws all notions of guilt and innocence out of the criminal justice system. All these algorithms do is lock people up based on their score on a test designed by a private corporation, which has a financial interest in locking people up. The companies making the algorithms also do not share their method, which makes it even harder for us to trust their legitimacy. Plus, the lack of transparency makes it impossible for a defendant to mount a suitable defense against it since they don't even know how it works.

Ultimately, predictive policing gives private corporations more influence on how this country policies crime. And if we know anything about our history, we need to do everything in our power to resist it.