Offenders will be required to record short videos of themselves answering questions about their recent activities. The tech will fire instant red alerts to the Probation Service if the offender tries to thwart the identity match or gives other reasons for concern.
Prisons minister Lord Timpson said the pilot was ‘helping catapult our analogue justice system into a new digital age’. Its launch follows the introduction into Parliament of the Sentencing Bill, which provides for more community sentencing and fewer short prison terms.
The tech is being piloted in four regions—the South West, North West, East of England and Kent, Surrey and Sussex—before national rollout with added GPS location verification.
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said there must be ‘clear consideration of how rights might be violated and how they could be protected… And of course, it is vital that the Probation Service is adequately resourced’.
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