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

Tons of of kids who’ve dedicated critical crimes are being given GPS ankle tags annually, permitting the UK’s Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to trace their location 24 hours a day, New Scientist can reveal. Kids as younger as 12 are being monitored as a part of the scheme, which started in 2021. Campaigners and researchers say the tags’ use is pointless and their effectiveness unproven.

“We all know from present analysis by medical and human rights organisations that GPS tagging is commonly skilled as an open-door jail and is extremely stigmatising,” says Lucie Audibert at Privateness Worldwide, a UK charity. “I’d additionally query the need and proportionality of monitoring these kids’s GPS location each minute of the day.”

GPS ankle tags had been first launched in England and Wales in 2018 to watch adults convicted of offences equivalent to housebreaking or knife crime who had been launched from jail on probation. The tags can file a person’s motion 24 hours a day and can be utilized to make sure that the offender stays away from sure places, equivalent to a sufferer’s residence, and that they attend court-mandated appointments.

Use of the tags was prolonged in March 2021 to under-18s who had dedicated critical violent or sexual crimes. Now, a freedom of data request by New Scientist has revealed that, in 2021, 388 kids below the age of 18 had been made to put on a GPS tag. The youngest was 13 years previous. The figures for 2022 present that 550 kids had been monitored utilizing a GPS tag, together with a 12-year-old.

Northern Eire doesn’t use GPS tags and Scotland doesn’t use them for baby offenders. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson says the tags are utilized in England and Wales to safeguard kids and assist steer them away from crime or exploitation by criminals.

“They could even be used to make sure they attend faculty or avoid areas with recognized gang exercise or associates,” stated the spokesperson. “Their welfare is all the time our high precedence and clear safeguards guarantee it is just used when completely crucial.”

However Elizabeth Paddock on the College of Nottingham, UK, who has carried out a scientific assessment of digital monitoring for offenders, says it’s unclear whether or not the tags obtain these objectives. “Only a few good-quality research exist and only a few printed research present decrease recidivism charges for these on digital monitoring,” she says.

“It’s essential to evaluate how and why digital monitoring deters prison behaviour within the short-term and whether or not the tactic can obtain longer-term offender change,” says Paddock.

“Similar to every other intervention utilized in prison justice, it may be used successfully for the suitable functions and, likewise, might be ineffectively used the place it ought to haven’t been utilized within the first place,” she says.