NCJ Number
172598
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 76 Issue: 4 Dated: December 1996 Pages: 475-483
Date Published
1996
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Because Texas is the epitome of a corrections policy that emphasizes incarceration for offenders and swift intervention for juveniles, it is a laboratory for testing whether these policies can reduce crime, sustain the reduction, and increase the public perception of safety; if this strategy fails, Texas will probably be the first State to commit to high-technology electronic monitoring on a large scale.
Abstract
There are a number of factors that may lead to an increase in the use of "geographical location systems" for managing and restricting offenders. These include the inability of incarceration to sustain declines in the crime rate, the continuation of the public's fear of crime, an expansion of the criminal population due to an increase in criminogenic economic and social conditions, and public demand for more cost-effective crime-control measures. The technology that can facilitate the use of "walking prisons" includes a modem that signals an offender with an anklet transponder is leaving his home, with drive-by units tracking the signal from there; the use of cellular or satellite technology to pick up a signal that pinpoints the exact location of an offender; and the use of miniature, computerized, electronic-monitoring devices implanted under an offender's skin to monitor physiological patterns or reactions as well as location. The potential for totalitarian abuses of these technologies is of primary importance for the future of our democracy. 6 references