Robbery convicts likely to wear electronic anklets

By Lee Hyo-sik

The government will draw up a bill to force people repeatedly convicted of robbery to wear electronic tracing anklets, the same as rapists and murderers who have been released after serving their sentence do, beginning next year.

Currently, a total of 401 convicted felons — 208 murderers and 193 sex offenders — are under constant police surveillance in this manner.

The Ministry of Justice said Thursday that it will revise the Electronic Anklet Law to also require robbers convicted multiple times to wear the device after serving their sentence.

“We plan to submit the revised bill to the National Assembly in September for approval to force repeat burglars to wear the anklets at all times from early next year. If the bill is passed, they will be discouraged from committing another robbery after they are released back into society,” a ministry official said.

The ministry had previously tried to include robbers in a list of criminals subject to the electronic monitoring device in December 2009 when it first revised the law. But only murderers were included to wear the anklets.

“Compared to other types of criminals, robbers are more likely to repeat their crimes. Additionally, they have the potential to commit more brutal offenses such as murder and rape. We need effective preventive measures to discourage them from continuing to engage in illicit acts,” the official said.

Nearly 28 percent of robbers are repeat offenders after being released from prison, higher than murderers’ 10.2 percent and rapists’ 14.8 percent, according to the ministry.

However, civic groups and civil rights activists oppose the justice ministry’s latest move, saying it excessively restricts individuals’ privacy.

In recent months, several ex-convicts wearing the anklets took their own lives out of frustration that they were unable to carry on with everyday life because of the device.

“I think it is a rational argument that society needs to constantly monitor murderers and sexual offenders to prevent them from repeating their crimes. But subjecting robbers to the same punishment seems to be too harsh. The real problem is that the ministry should have first listened to public opinion on the matter. But it didn’t,” said Ahn Jin-geol, director of the social economic department at the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy.

He said burglary was not as serious as murder, kidnapping and sexual assaults, stressing the government should be more considerate of the well-being of ex-convicts after they are released from correctional facilities.