The Hong Kong Correctional Service is serious about improving the reliability of its prisons with the help of high technology. According to Commissioner Danny Wu Ying-min, several correctional colonies will soon be equipped with “smart” cells. Also, inmates will be constantly monitored thanks to bracelets that track their location and heart rate. Moreover, there will be special robots in prisons that will perform, in the truest sense of the word, dirty work.
The new technology will be designed to improve the security of both security guards and inmates themselves. At first they will be tested in three correctional facilities. If they prove effective, the “smart” equipment will be distributed to other places of detention. Authorities probably want to equip all their prisons with them.
Artificial intelligence cameras are to be installed in bathrooms. To ensure privacy, some areas of the footage will be blacked out. The system will monitor and catch “abnormal” prisoner behavior such as fights and painful attacks.
The bracelets will relay the location of each offender to guards. They will also monitor their heartbeat and notify workers of health problems. The system is likely to help prevent escapes, murders and sudden deaths of prisoners.
By “robot,” prison officials mean a mechanical arm that will search for contraband drugs in the waste. At the moment, prison officials themselves have to do this dirty work.
