[Note especially the final paragraph.]
Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs'
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3333852.ece
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 air****t 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 *** 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 re****t revealed many criminals simply ditched the ankle
tag and separate ****table 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
*****sing 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 member****p 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 *** 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 ***
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 ***
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."
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