Apple watch-style bracelets and spice wands - inside tech push to fix jail crisis

Digital wands that can detect drugs and biometric smartwatch-style bracelets could be used to reduce violence, addiction and other harms in jails or in the community.

Prisons Minister James Timpson is exploring the use of technology as he battles to deal with an ongoing criminal justice crisis. He is looking at a wide range of radical tech ideas, including special smell detectors to replace sniffer dogs and thermal sensors to be on suicide watch in jail cells.

Outside of prisons, facial recognition technology that can be integrated into CCTV cameras in nightclubs and pubs to catch criminals who are banned from the premises is being explored. It could also be used within ring doorbells where an offender is on house arrest to ensure they are at home or that bad actors do not visit them.

On Tuesday seven top tech companies pitched their ideas in a Dragon’s Den-style event in central London, which The Mirror attended. Among the pitches included ‘smell detector’ devices which use synthetic brain cells and AI to replicate the behaviour of a human nose.

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The sensor can be attached to airport-style security scanners or in areas in a jail to detect if drugs are present, not only to confiscate them but also to build up intelligence about illegal drug use within a prison.

Elsewhere, one company was offering a “spice wand” that can detect the drug with bright ultraviolet light. There is a major crisis in prisons in England and Wales related to synthetic cannabinoids - often referred to as “spice”. Inmates often receive letters in the post soaked in the drug, which is difficult for officers to identify, but could be tackled using the UV wand tool.

Biometric bracelets that can monitor a wearer’s heart rate to try to predict stress levels and avoid violent outbursts are also being looked at, for use inside and outside jails.

The wrist watches - which look similar to an Apple-style smartwatch - would also be able to “nudge” offenders in the community to go to a probation or mental health appointment, as well as monitoring the GPS location of the wearer like an ankle tag. The watches can connect to an app, which is also available to victims and can alert them if a perpetrator is too close to them, for instance if there is a restraining order in place.

Elsewhere much of the technology proposed would seek to cut down admin tasks for probation staff, including one app that would allow offenders in the community to complete a check-in form with an officer on their phone.

Tracking devices inserted under offenders’ skin were also reportedly suggested to ministers. Some human rights campaigners branded the idea “alarmingly dystopian".

Asked if Britain was moving towards Big Brother-style surveillance tactics, Prisons minister James Timpson told The Mirror: “Victims come first. We're not scared of surveillance, and we're not scared of creating a prison outside of prison in someone's house, if that is the best way to deal with them.

“The fact is that when people are in the community, they're still being punished, and we need to make sure that their lives are restricted in the way we want them to be restricted, both for victims and also as part of their punishment.”

Pressed on inserting trackers into people’s skin, Lord Timpson said: “I think we need to look at everything. I think we need to be brave and we need to make sure that we really focus on what’s going to make a difference.”

He admitted anything new you do in any organisation “comes with risks”, but added: “But for me, the risk of not embracing technology far outweighs [those] if we don’t embrace technology, especially in probation... They’re crying out for technology. When probation staff joined the service, they didn’t join the service to do 80% of their time doing admin. They joined the service to help people turn their lives around.”

More than 90 companies initially pitched ideas to the Ministry of Justice, which were whittled down to seven firms, including Accenture, Scram System and SentrX.

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