On Thu, 5 Jul 2001, Aimee Farr wrote:
Tim's comment about facial recognition ("Smart CCTV" on the signage) being a social mindgame does bring to mind predictions of a surveillance caste system and real-space criminal "blocks" or enclaves (i.e. Escape From New York). "We're watching you" = "Don't come here," pragmatically forcing undesirables outside legitimate transactional and social systems.
Bear wrote:
Right. Between all the "offender databases" and "surveillance for your (cough) protection" and so on, anyone who's got a record winds up so completely frozen out of normal society that it becomes impossible for them to get by without continuing as a part of criminal society.
Some of Florida's convicted criminals are under constant supervision without being housed in prisons, thanks to the use of Global Positioning System (GPS). The system, which is currently monitoring 600 convicts in Florida, uses a satellite, and can be programmed to alert authorities when a sex offender, for instance, is going near a schoolyard. GPS tracking is more effective than the old electronic monitoring system, which many states still employ. The new technology can locate the offender from room to room within a house, or on a street corner. However, probation officers will still have to physically check on persons who are on the program, which lasts about two years. The new system costs $9.17 per day, compared to $50 a day for an state prison-housed inmate, or $3 per day for conventional electronic monitoring. (www.sunsentinel.com) Source: NLECTC Law Enforcement & Corrections Technology News Summary