Seasoned observers of Ministry of Justice White Papers since 2010 could be forgiven for thinking that the latest one has been written by a singularly dim and unsophisticated algorithm.
Mass surveillance has been everybody’s idea of dystopia for a long time, at least since Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four.
In a letter in today's Guardian, tagging expert Mike Nellis calls for the 'over-complex, outsourced infrastructure set in place to manage the mass expansion of GPS tracking' to be dismantled', to be replaced by 'a modest and sensible use of tagging.. properly integrated into a restored, publicly owned probation service, as it mostly is in mainland Europe'.
The Centre is currently working with Mike Nellis and partners across the penal reform sector to explore the possibilities for a progressive vision for the future of electronic monitoring. This followed a private...
Last week we held a symposium on the future of electronic monitoring of those under a criminal justice sanction in England and Wales.
The symposium heard from Dr Hannah Graham, from the University of Stirling and Professor Mike Nellis, from the University of Strathclyde.
Dr Graham spoke about the Scottish experience of electronic monitoring, as well as international evidence on impact and effectiveness. Professor Nellis...
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) session on the National Audit Office’s (NAO) report on the Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) failed 'New World' electronic monitoring (EM) strategy on the 13th November was a disappointment.
Drawing on the recent forensic analysis by the National Audit Office, Professor Nellis, one of the foremost experts on electronic monitoring, highlights the ‘massive waste of public money’ and the ‘hubris and incompetence’ that has dogged the programme.
The Ministry of Justice should consult widely and transparently with public sector, private sector and civil society organisations on plans to electronically monitor those under a criminal sanction, if it is to avoid the waste and chaos that characterised attempts to develop a new satellite-enabled GPS tag.
Parliament should also investigate the 'vast waste of time, energy and money' expended by the Ministry of Justice as its unrealistic programme lurched from one crisis to another.
The call comes in a new Centre for Crime and Justice Studies briefing by Professor Mike Nellis, one of the...
The hubristically named 'New World' electronic montoring (EM) strategy, devised by the Conservative-led Coalition Government back in 2012, was a commercial, technological and penal fiasco and there is nothing to be regretted about its passing.
