
The proposed scheme, part of a £700m expansion in GPS and AI monitoring, would confine released offenders to fixed areas—potentially breaching rights to liberty, privacy and livelihood under the ECHR.
Ronson argues the measures are incompatible with existing case law and plagued by the UK’s history of failed tagging systems. With AI risk-assessment algorithms already criticised as biased, she cautions against letting machines replace judicial discretion.
Drawing parallels with failed US exclusion laws, Ronson says such zones would breed inequality and resentment without reducing crime. Justice, she writes, ‘requires empathy and context—not predictive policing and perpetual monitoring’