Violent Criminals to Wear Electronic Anklets
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The government is planning to force convicted violent criminals to wear electronic monitoring devices around their ankles in a bid to track their movements.
The Ministry of Justice said Friday that the rule would apply to those who committed certain types of murder, robbery, abduction and arson.
They will be under surveillance for up to 10 years after their release from prison and their whereabouts will be traced by a monitoring center at the Korean Probation and Parole Office in northern Seoul.
Currently, certain sex offenders are subject to the round-the-clock monitoring and a similar bill is pending at the National Assembly for those who have convictions for child abduction.
France and the United States are among the countries which already use devices to track murderers and sex offenders.
A series of public hearings will be held to determine specific details and push for a revision of the law by June.