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."
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"_______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
[email protected]
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
---------------------------------------
