Convict electronic surveillance program to save NIS 20m a year

Hashmira Security Technologies and Elmo-Tech are managing the program for the Ministry of Defense, Israel Police and Israel Prison Service.

An electronic surveillance program for convicts and detainees will save the state NIS 20 million a year, predicts Hasmira Group subsidiary Hashmira Security Technologies (1971) Ltd. (TASE:SHMI). Hashmira has begun operating the innovative Ministry of Defense, Israel Police and Israel Prison Service program. Hashmira joined forces with Dmatek Ltd. (LSE:DTK) subsidiary Elmo-Tech Ltd., a maker of supervision equipment and control rooms, and considered a world leader in electronic supervision.

The program is designed to ensure that the police and courts can monitor a convict’s moves by electronic surveillance. The program aims at reducing the number of convicts in prison, which involves high costs and is behaviorally devastating, and at saving money.

A convict in prison costs taxpayers NIS 300-400 per day. The electronic surveillance system cuts this cost by 60%, or approximately NIS 20 million.

The innovative program also has many ramifications for jailed convicts. If it succeeds, the program will turn Israel into a country where human rights are a supreme value. The need for alternatives to incarceration has existed for a long time, due to unacceptable conditions and insufferable overcrowding in prisons and lock-ups. After a study of various methods, a system of electronic bracelets worn by convicts was chosen. The bracelet indicates the convict’s location and reports when he or she leaves a predetermined area.

This is one of the most advanced surveillance methods in the world, and is already in use in several countries.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 9, 2005

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