Electronic bracelets monitor movement of prisoners.
Eight years after it was first announced as an attempt to reduce the number of prisoners, the Ministry of Justice on Thursday began the testing period for the project of the electronic supervision of prisoners, reports Večernji List on February 6, 2017.
With the funds received from the European Union, the Ministry purchased 20 base stations and electronic bracelets, which will initially be used for defendants in the Zagreb area in those cases when a judge orders a pre-trial detention in their homes and for prisoners who have been released on parole. If it turns out to be cheaper than keeping prisoners in prisons, which is highly likely, there is little doubt that the project will be expanded to entire country.
“With the electronic supervision, we will protect the society from the influence of people who have broken the law, but we will also help such people to return to normal life. For a pre-trial detention to be implemented in the homes of prisoners, it is necessary to have their consent and consent of adult members of their household. The selection of prisoners who will receive the ankle bracelet will be done by judges, independently or at the proposal of the state attorney. We are still waiting for the first person to be put under electronic supervision”, said Sanja Mišević, State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice.
The device works on the principle of radio frequency. The ankle bracelet is waterproof and has triple protection – it monitors movements, temperature and detects an attempt to remove it. Once the consent is signed, officers from the Department for Probation will come to prisoner’s home and install a base station. Once placed in the home, this device must not be moved.
The system will be monitored by 16 specially trained officers at the Ministry. They will monitor the compliance with the rules. People who are supposed to be in a pre-trial detention will not be allowed to leave their homes, while those who are on parole must be in their homes between 10 pm and 6 am.
Any unauthorized action is immediately communicated to the control room with sound and light signals. The person under electronic supervision must at all times be reachable on a mobile phone, a home phone, or through the receiver station. At a later stage, a GPS monitoring system might be implemented. It would allow the authorities to control whether, for example, a rapist is following a restraining order with regards to the victim.
In recent days, employees of the Ministry have tested the electronic devices. They say that everything works perfectly and that they are ready to get started.
