Cheap and ubiquitous GPS allows us to eliminate the guesswork from catching repeat offenders. Anyone convicted of robbery or assault is tagged with an ankle monitor. Any time a crime is committed, it’s checked against the GPS records of criminals.
I’m surprised no one has pushed through a cell-phone tracking app as a replacement for the ankle monitors. Sure, its not as secure, and may be left somewhere/forgotten/etc. but if you included it as a condition for parole/probation, you could probably get pretty high usage rates, with little added cost and annoyance.
Sure, the first point is why I think it will work. As for the second, sure, it may not be 100% accurate, but it would be better than nothing, and even negative information could be useful. (e.g. Person X did not have their phone on during the robbery, but otherwise normally has it on them 100% of the time.) I agree it’s not an ideal solution, just something that might help a little.
What do you mean, “will”? It is working. If you are deemed to be a person of sufficient interest to one of the TLAs, they can track your phone right now.
Justice departments notably have trouble keeping up with modern technology. Where I live, it’s still impossible to get a digital copy of your file (leading to a case where someone ate an important document and was able to go free on a technicality).
Not just that, but smartphones are not quite ubiquitous yet. Either you require the person to purchase one, or have the state purchase one, neither of which is ideal.
I suspect there are also legal and human right problems, since ankle monitors are already used as a form of punishment, but have never been used (as far as I know) as a parole/probation measure.
The social stigma of something like that seems like you’re basically throwing away any hope of rehabilitation, but it’s hardly as if the US is much good at that anyhow.
They can’t get away with robbery. There are ways to defect in the prisoner’s dilemma that are less overt. The reason people don’t like to hire convicts isn’t because of anything that would be prevented by an anklet.
Cheap and ubiquitous GPS allows us to eliminate the guesswork from catching repeat offenders. Anyone convicted of robbery or assault is tagged with an ankle monitor. Any time a crime is committed, it’s checked against the GPS records of criminals.
Ankle monitors are surprisingly annoying to wear. It would be a big, long-term punishment that would probably come on top of a prison sentence.
I’m surprised no one has pushed through a cell-phone tracking app as a replacement for the ankle monitors. Sure, its not as secure, and may be left somewhere/forgotten/etc. but if you included it as a condition for parole/probation, you could probably get pretty high usage rates, with little added cost and annoyance.
First, all cell phones have tracking already built-in as a free (and undeletable) feature X-/
Second, if I know I’m going out to do some robbery and muggery, will it inconvenience me much to leave my cell phone at home?
Sure, the first point is why I think it will work. As for the second, sure, it may not be 100% accurate, but it would be better than nothing, and even negative information could be useful. (e.g. Person X did not have their phone on during the robbery, but otherwise normally has it on them 100% of the time.) I agree it’s not an ideal solution, just something that might help a little.
What do you mean, “will”? It is working. If you are deemed to be a person of sufficient interest to one of the TLAs, they can track your phone right now.
Justice departments notably have trouble keeping up with modern technology. Where I live, it’s still impossible to get a digital copy of your file (leading to a case where someone ate an important document and was able to go free on a technicality).
Not just that, but smartphones are not quite ubiquitous yet. Either you require the person to purchase one, or have the state purchase one, neither of which is ideal.
I suspect there are also legal and human right problems, since ankle monitors are already used as a form of punishment, but have never been used (as far as I know) as a parole/probation measure.
The social stigma of something like that seems like you’re basically throwing away any hope of rehabilitation, but it’s hardly as if the US is much good at that anyhow.
not true! sure you know they’ve stolen, but now they can’t get away with it. This makes them more trustworthy, negating stigma.
They can’t get away with robbery. There are ways to defect in the prisoner’s dilemma that are less overt. The reason people don’t like to hire convicts isn’t because of anything that would be prevented by an anklet.
If you watched Tomorrow Never Dies, you should be wary of too much reliance on GPS.