SIGHTINGS



Convict Chip Idea
Stirs Ire - Inmate
Implants Coming?
By Colleen Heild
Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer
Autumn 99 - Issue No. 244
11-21-99
 
 
Eleanor White's <raven1@bestnet.org comments: Current, late-90's electronic mind control technology in the classified realm does not require implants. However, implants are still very significant for two reasons:
 
1. Not all electronic mind control perpetrators possess, apparently, the implant-LESS technology. This is evident from the fact that several involuntary implantees have had implants removed but not one has ever been given custody of the removed implant. Someone apparently wants them kept out of our hands.
 
2. Not every level of government even knows about implant-LESS technology, and therefore, these non-privileged levels of government are obvoiusly attracted to the degree of control which can be had by implanting populations. The following article makes that chillingly clear!
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Gov. Gary Johnson has hopes that rapidly advancing computer technology someday could help solve the problem of New Mexico's overcrowded prisons.
 
Much to the dismay of inmate lawyers, Johnson at a private meeting in May [1999] raised the possibility that a futuristic form of incarceration could include implanting microchips in convicted felons.
 
Johnson made the comments during an informal meeting with the chief federal judge in New Mexico, top state corrections officials, and lawyers involved in an 18-year-old lawsuit over prison conditions, according to three people who attended the gathering.
 
Johnson said during an interview this week that he wasn't implying the state could implement such a program anytime soon. But, he said, with "the technology advancing all the time, we're going to have in the future to ... be able to implement innovative ways of parole and work release."
 
Peter Cubra, one of the lawyers representing inmates in the prison lawsuit testified about the remarks earlier this month at the Legislature's Interim Courts, Corrections, and Criminal Justice Committee. Cubra didnt' divulge where Johnson made the comments, but two ...
 
[TEXT MISSING FROM PHOTOCOPY]
 
According to Cubra, Johnson responded by saying technology is evolving to the point that microchip implants WOULD be performed, and someday would be relatively inexpensive.
 
"What the governor literally said ... was, he took his index finger and thumb and held them about a half an inch apart and he said 'We are this closeto the time when we will have microchips avialable' and then he took his left hand, took it to his temple and said 'AND WE CAN INSERT THE MICROCHIPS INTO PEOPLE'S BRAINS AND CONTROL THEIR BEHAVIOR THAT WAY'" Cubra told the legislative committee Aug. 18 in Albuquerque.
 
Apparently it wasn't the first time Johnson made such remarks.
 
People who attended the Santa Fe meeting said Johnson mentioned that he had raised the issue during his campaign for governor. After Johnson's statements in May [1999] those in the room were stunned, said Cubra and another person at the meeting.
 
However a third person who attended but refused to be identified said the governor was obviously joking.
 
A spokesman for Conway said Thursday that the judge wouldn't comment on any matter related to pending litigation. Cubra brought up Johnson's remarks urging the legislative committee to take the lead in setting prison policy. "This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, he said.
 
He told the committee "it appeared the executive branch didn't have any realistic attitudes about it. A spokeswoman for the governor said last week that Johnson was speaking in "very broad terms" when he mentioned the microchip concept.
 
"He said he was talking very broadly, very future-oriented, like what are the technologies that are being developed for prisoners, what applications in general for new technology might there be" said Catherine Bedell, a deputy chief of staff.
 
Asked Whether Johnson has any specific proposals, she said, "not yet" and referred further questions to Corrections Secretary Karl Sannicks.
 
Sannicks, through a spokesman, said he hadn't heard about microchips being used on prisoners and "it probably would be something he would not implement."
 
When asked about the May meeting, Johnson said Wednesday "I was talking about bracelets and being able to track felons out of jail, that that technology is going to exist if it doesn't exist already.
 
"But it's going to exist in an affordable state and that may revol- utionize parole, that may revolutionize incarceration as far as we know it. In that context, that technology certainly is in the future, is going to play a role in parole, in incarceration, and work release."
 
Asked whether he specifically brought up microchips, Johnson said, "Well, talking about microprocessors, the advance in microprocessors, again, that is technology in essence."
 
Dr. Michael Hollifield, director of the Special Problems Clinic at the University of New Mexico medical school, said HE KNEW OF NO RESEARCH ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY ON THE USE OF MICROCHIPS TO CONTROL HUMAN BEHAVIOR. [Eleanor White's comment: CROCK]
 
"There's a lot of myth and innuendo about this stuff" Hollifield said.
 
Hollifield's clinic offers short term cognitive and behavioral therapies for psychiatric disorders.





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