Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs'
Hi-tech 'satellite' tagging planned in order to create more space in
jails
Civil rights groups and probation officers furious at 'degrading'
scheme
By Brian Brady, Whitehall Editor
Published: 13 January 2008
Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under
the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the
electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.
Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison
overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of
satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.
But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the
tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in
the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency
identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to
carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their
identities, address and offending record.
The tags, labelled "spychips" by privacy campaigners, are already used
around the world to keep track of dogs, cats, cattle and airport
luggage, but there is no record of the technology being used to monitor
offenders in the community. The chips are also being considered as a
method of helping to keep order within prisons.
A senior Ministry of Justice official last night confirmed that the
department hoped to go even further, by extending the geographical range
of the internal chips through a link-up with satellite-tracking similar
to the system used to trace stolen vehicles. "All the options are on the
table, and this is one we would like to pursue," the source added.
The move is in line with a proposal from Ken Jones, the president of the
Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), that electronic chips
should be surgically implanted into convicted paedophiles and sex
offenders in order to track them more easily. Global Positioning System
(GPS) technology is seen as the favoured method of monitoring such
offenders to prevent them going near "forbidden" zones such as primary
schools.
"We have wanted to take advantage of this technology for several years,
because it seems a sensible solution to the problems we are facing in
this area," a senior minister said last night. "We have looked at it and
gone back to it and worried about the practicalities and the ethics, but
when you look at the challenges facing the criminal justice system, it's
time has come."
The Government has been forced to review sentencing policy amid serious
overcrowding in the nation's jails, after the prison population soared
from 60,000 in 1997 to 80,000 today. The crisis meant the number of
prisoners held in police cells rose 13-fold last year, with police
stations housing offenders more than 60,000 times in 2007, up from 4,617
the previous year. The UK has the highest prison population per capita
in western Europe, and the Government is planning for an extra 20,000
places at a cost of £3.8bn – including three gigantic new "superjails" –
in the next six years.
More than 17,000 individuals, including criminals and suspects released
on bail, are subject to electronic monitoring at any one time, under
curfews requiring them to stay at home up to 12 hours a day. But
official figures reveal that almost 2,000 offenders a year escape
monitoring by tampering with ankle tags or tearing them off. Curfew
breaches rose from 11,435 in 2005 to 43,843 in 2006 – up 283 per cent.
The monitoring system, which relies on mobile-phone technology, can fail
if the network crashes.
A multimillion-pound pilot of satellite monitoring of offenders was
shelved last year after a report revealed many criminals simply ditched
the ankle tag and separate portable tracking unit issued to them. The
"prison without bars" project also failed to track offenders when they
were in the shadow of tall buildings.
The Independent on Sunday has now established that ministers have been
assessing the merits of cutting-edge technology that would make it
virtually impossible for individuals to remove their electronic tags.
The tags, injected into the back of the arm with a hypodermic needle,
consist of a toughened glass capsule holding a computer chip, a copper
antenna and a "capacitor" that transmits data stored on the chip when
prompted by an electromagnetic reader.
But details of the dramatic option for tightening controls over
Britain's criminals provoked an angry response from probation officers
and civil-rights groups. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said:
"If the Home Office doesn't understand why implanting a chip in someone
is worse than an ankle bracelet, they don't need a human-rights lawyer;
they need a common-sense bypass.
"Degrading offenders in this way will do nothing for their
rehabilitation and nothing for our safety, as some will inevitably find
a way round this new technology."
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association
of Probation Officers, said the proposal would not make his members'
lives easier and would degrade their clients. He added: "I have heard
about this suggestion, but we feel the system works well enough as it
is. Knowing where offenders like paedophiles are does not mean you know
what they are doing.
"This is the sort of daft idea that comes up from the department every
now and then, but tagging people in the same way we tag our pets cannot
be the way ahead. Treating people like pieces of meat does not seem to
represent an improvement in the system to me."
The US market leader VeriChip Corp, whose parent company has been
selling radio tags for animals for more than a decade, has sold 7,000
RFID microchips worldwide, of which about 2,000 have been implanted in
humans. The company claims its VeriChips are used in more than 5,000
installations, crossing healthcare, security, government and industrial
markets, but they have also been used to verify VIP membership in
nightclubs, automatically gaining the carrier entry – and deducting the
price of their drinks from a pre-paid account.
The possible value of the technology to the UK's justice system was
first highlighted 18 months ago, when Acpo's Mr Jones suggested the
chips could be implanted into sex offenders. The implants would be
tracked by satellite, enabling authorities to set up "zones", including
schools, playgrounds and former victims' homes, from which individuals
would be barred.
"If we are prepared to track cars, why don't we track people?" Mr Jones
said. "You could put surgical chips into those of the most dangerous sex
offenders who are willing to be controlled."
*The case for: 'We track cars, so why not people?'*
The Government is struggling to keep track of thousands of offenders in
the community and is troubled by an overcrowded prison system close to
bursting. Internal tagging offers a solution that could impose curfews
more effectively than at present, and extend the system by keeping sex
offenders out of "forbidden areas". "If we are prepared to track cars,
why don't we track people?" said Ken Jones, president of the Association
of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).
Officials argue that the internal tags enable the authorities to enforce
thousands of court orders by ensuring offenders remain within their own
walls during curfew hours – and allow the immediate verification of ID
details when challenged.
The internal tags also have a use in maintaining order within prisons.
In the United States, they are used to track the movement of gang
members within jails.
Offenders themselves would prefer a tag they can forget about, instead
of the bulky kit carried around on the ankle.
*The case against: 'The rest of us could be next'*
Professionals in the criminal justice system maintain that the present
system is 95 per cent effective. Radio frequency identification (RFID)
technology is unproven. The technology is actually more invasive, and
carries more information about the host. The devices have been dubbed
"spychips" by critics who warn that they would transmit data about the
movements of other people without their knowledge.
Consumer privacy expert Liz McIntyre said a colleague had already proved
he could "clone" a chip. "He can bump into a chipped person and siphon
the chip's unique signal in a matter of seconds," she said.
One company plans deeper implants that could vibrate, electroshock the
implantee, broadcast a message, or serve as a microphone to transmit
conversations. "Some folks might foolishly discount all of these
downsides and futuristic nightmares since the tagging is proposed for
criminals like rapists and murderers," Ms McIntyre said. "The rest of us
could be next."
/To have your say on this or any other issue visit/
www.independent.co.uk/IoSblogs <http://www.independent.co.uk/IoSblogs>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape
<http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489>
in the new year.
