Hundreds of children made to wear GPS tags by UK's Ministry of Justice

Hundreds of children who person committed superior crimes are being fixed GPS ankle tags each year, allowing the UK’s Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to way their determination 24 hours a day, New Scientist tin reveal. Children arsenic young arsenic 12 are being monitored arsenic portion of the scheme, which began successful 2021. Campaigners and researchers accidental the tags’ usage is unnecessary and their effectiveness unproven.

“We cognize from existing probe by aesculapian and quality rights organisations that GPS tagging is often experienced arsenic an open-door situation and is highly stigmatising,” says Lucie Audibert astatine Privacy International, a UK charity. “I would besides question the necessity and proportionality of tracking these children’s GPS determination each infinitesimal of the day.”

GPS ankle tags were archetypal introduced successful England and Wales successful 2018 to show adults convicted of offences specified arsenic burglary oregon weapon transgression who had been released from situation connected probation. The tags tin grounds an individual’s question 24 hours a time and tin beryllium utilized to guarantee that the offender stays distant from definite locations, specified arsenic a victim’s home, and that they be court-mandated appointments.

Use of the tags was extended successful March 2021 to under-18s who had committed superior convulsive oregon intersexual crimes. Now, a state of accusation petition by New Scientist has revealed that, successful 2021, 388 children nether the property of 18 were made to deterioration a GPS tag. The youngest was 13 years old. The figures for 2022 amusement that 550 children were monitored utilizing a GPS tag, including a 12-year-old.

Northern Ireland doesn’t usage GPS tags and Scotland doesn’t usage them for kid offenders. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson says the tags are utilized successful England and Wales to safeguard children and assistance steer them distant from transgression oregon exploitation by criminals.

“They mightiness besides beryllium utilized to guarantee they be schoolhouse oregon enactment distant from areas with known pack enactment oregon associates,” said the spokesperson. “Their payment is ever our apical precedence and wide safeguards guarantee it is lone utilized erstwhile perfectly necessary.”

But Elizabeth Paddock astatine the University of Nottingham, UK, who has carried retired a systematic reappraisal of physics monitoring for offenders, says it is unclear whether the tags execute these goals. “Very fewer good-quality studies beryllium and precise fewer published studies amusement little recidivism rates for those connected physics monitoring,” she says.

“It is important to measure however and wherefore physics monitoring deters transgression behaviour successful the short-term and whether the method tin execute longer-term offender change,” says Paddock.

“Just similar immoderate different involution utilized successful transgression justice, it tin beryllium utilized efficaciously for the due purposes and, likewise, tin beryllium ineffectively utilized wherever it should person not been applied successful the archetypal place,” she says.

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