The Justice Department of the Chinese city, Zhongshan, recently developed a blockchain-based system with the capability of tracking the movements of ex-convicts on condition of conditional freedom in the city, in order to improve the “community correction”. According to local news outlets, the department declared that it has developed and applied this system with the intention of providing immediate information on all movements of the ex-residents of retention centers.
This technology has been deployed in several community centers in which the ex-convicts are asked to register and perform several daily tasks. The information of the ex-offenders will be updated in a distributed manner, therefore, the community correction personnel and the security agencies will have access to the network to determine the whereabouts of the condemned at any time, allowing them to take the appropriate measures if some of them “deviate from their requirements.”
On the other hand, the Department of Justice commented that, thanks to this system; they could reduce the amount of personnel they traditionally need to follow ex-convicts from one place to another, while ensuring that they move within the framework of the law and carry out their community service. This would be one of the most recent cases of application of blockchain technology in China, a country that is presumed to be at the forefront of this sector by the year 2023, according to numerous experts, and which would even seek to implement this technology in the banking sector and public administration. Likewise, this type of initiative would really take a step forward in the world of social reintegration and rehabilitation of individuals deprived of their liberty.
By Samuel Larreal
