衛星追踪最危險的精神病患者

衛星追踪最危險的精神病患者
Satellite tracking for the most dangerous psychiatric patients
From The Times
June 5, 2010

Some of Britain’s most dangerous psychiatric patients, including murderers, rapists and paedophiles, are being fitted with satellite tracking devices to stop them escaping and reoffending.
一些英國最危險的精神病患者，包括殺人犯、強姦犯和戀童癖者，正被安裝衛星跟踪裝置，以阻止他們逃跑和再次犯罪。
A leading NHS trust has become the first to fit patients with an ankle bracelet containing global positioning system (GPS) technology, so they can be tracked if they abscond. The device, worn on a lockable, steel-reinforced, ankle strap, allows authorities to track a patient’s movements to within a few metres anywhere in the world.
一間領導的國民保健服務信託，已成為第一家安裝腳眼鐲在患者上，它包含全球定位系統（GPS）技術，這樣如果他們棄保潛逃就可以被跟踪。該裝置設有一條可上鎖、鋼加固踝帶，容許當局在世界任何地方的幾米以內追踪病人的行動。
More than 60 medium and high-risk patients detained at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust have been fitted with the device as a condition of day leave, or while they are transferred to and from hospitals.
60多名中、高風險患者被拘留在倫敦南部，和莫茲利國民保健服務信託基金會已配備以裝置，作為一休假、或當他們從醫院轉移的條件。
The trust said that such measures were necessary to protect the public, after a series of high-profile incidents where patients absconded, fled abroad or committed violent crimes.
信託表示這些措施是需要的，為保護公眾，經過一系列的高調事件有病人潛逃，逃到國外或作暴力犯罪。
Mental health charities said that the secure cuffs, which can be forcibly removed only using industrial bolt cutters, resembled “virtual leg irons” and could violate the rights of vulnerable patients.

The GPS device, known as a Buddi tracker, was originally designed for carers to track dementia patients who wandered from their homes.

The secure version, remotely monitored by a private security company based in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, was approved in March for routine use after a pilot study showed that it could help to apprehend patients in a matter of hours rather than days.

A number of other NHS Trusts are understood to be considering use of the trackers, developed by Sara Murray, an entrepreneur whose previous projects include confused.com, the price comparison website.

The system was introduced in South London as a response to the case of Terrence O’ Keefe, 39, a rapist who escaped from the trust’s care in March 2008 and later strangled David Kemp, 73, in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. O’Keefe was jailed for life after being recaptured and convicted of murder.

The trust opened a new £33.5 million medium-security unit at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham, in February 2008, where there have since been 26 incidents of patients absconding or failing to return, including one man who was eventually found in Canada.

The new system will cost the NHS about £600 for each patient, including £250 for an ankle bracelet containing a mobile phone chip and GPS locator.

Last month it was used to successfully track a male patient who had travelled eight miles on foot from Beckenham and was apprehended within three hours near Biggin Hill airport, Kent.

If a patient wearing the device leaves a defined area, strays close to a school or otherwise breaks their curfew, police can be automatically sent an alert with their estimated location within 50 metres, along with personal details and a mugshot.

Police can then be directed to the tracker within a target response time of 12 minutes.

Use of the tracker was “mostly voluntary”, but was also a condition for some patients being granted day leave as part of their rehabilitation, Ms Murray said. Patients detained by a court order or under the Mental Health Act are granted leave only from secure units after detailed assessment by medical staff.

“We started talking to the trust at the beginning of last year,” she said. “They have a number of high-profile, high-risk patients that are allowed out on leave. If they get an opportunity to run off, they will.”

A spokesperson for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said: “We have a duty to provide high-quality patient care while at the same time promoting public safety.”

But Paul Jenkins, chief executive of Rethink, the mental health charity, called the tags “demeaning” and said that patients with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia should not be labelled as criminals. He urged health regulators to monitor use of the tags and to ensure that patients gave consent to being tagged.

“The best way to help people to get better is to invest in treatment, and we would rather see money spent on improved mental health services rather than wasted on demeaning items such as these,” he said. “Violence is not a symptom of mental illness and should not be regarded as inevitable.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7144351.ece

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