Ministry of Justice: "Further Improve Electronic Anklets, Introduce Recidivism Risk Assessment System"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Ministry of Justice announced that it will strive to improve the system and prevent recidivism regarding the case of a man in his 50s who cut off his location-tracking electronic device (electronic anklet) and murdered two women.

On the morning of the 30th, Yoon Woong-jang, Director of the Crime Prevention Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, held a briefing at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office and explained the circumstances of the case and future plans.

The Ministry of Justice said it would first prepare measures to prevent damage by improving the durability of the electronic device. Although the electronic device has been improved six times so far, damage incidents still occur, so they plan to strengthen the durability by making the device more robust.

After damage occurs, they said they would improve a close cooperation system with the police for rapid arrest. They also decided to strengthen differentiated supervision and punishment according to the degree of recidivism risk. Specifically, they plan to introduce a system for periodic recidivism risk assessment considering criminal records and compliance with requirements.

Accordingly, they also said they would expand personnel. They saw the need to increase personnel as the number of subjects under electronic supervision has greatly increased compared to the personnel affiliated with the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry explained that the number of electronic supervision subjects recently increased by about 2,200.

Earlier, Kang Mo (56), who was wearing an electronic anklet, damaged the device and fled on the afternoon of the 27th. Before and after fleeing, he murdered two women he knew and then surrendered to the police.

According to the Ministry of Justice, Kang had a total of 14 criminal records including robbery-rape and robbery-injury. He was released from Cheonan Prison in May after serving his sentence, and electronic supervision began, requiring him to wear the electronic anklet for five years.

On May 14, he moved his residence and was supervised by the Seoul Eastern Probation Office. The probation office made 12 unannounced visits to Kang’s residence, conducted 17 communication checks, and checked his movement routes 18 times. Although there were no other violations of compliance, including this incident, he violated the nighttime outing restriction order twice. On June 1, he also went out at night.

On the 27th, when Kang damaged the electronic anklet and fled, two staff members of the electronic supervision crime prevention team at the Seoul Eastern Probation Office and special judicial police officers immediately began tracking his whereabouts after the damage alarm occurred, but they failed to arrest him.

As a result, there are increasing voices of responsibility and criticism that the probation office and police did not respond properly.

It is also known that Kang was excluded from the system that registers and shares personal information of sex offenders against children and adolescents. He was excluded because his sentence was finalized in May 2006, before the system was implemented. The personal information registration system requires registration for sex offenders against children and adolescents from June 2006, and for adult sex offenders from April 2011. Even when related laws were amended in June 2013 with a retroactive period of three years, Kang escaped the legal net.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.