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