German Justice minister "wants to tag long-term unemployed"

Bild claimed conservative Justice minister for the state of Hessen, Christean Wagner said the long-term unemployed could benefit from tagging as it would help them towards greater self-discipline in managing their long, empty days.

It said a statement to this effect was posted on the Minister's website on March 10th.

The statement seems to have been replaced with a new press release (pdf) claiming the minister had no such plans. "The idea of supplying long-term unemployed with electronic foot tags is absurd," says the new release.

It says the wording on the March 10th statement was unfortunate and easily mis-understood.

Bild says the actual wording read: "Die elektronische Fußfessel bietet damit auch Langzeitarbeitslosen und therapierten Suchtkranken die Chance, zu einem geregelten Tagesablauf zurückzukehren und in ein Arbeitsverhältnis vermittelt zu werden." ("The electronic foot-tag offers long-term unemployed and drug addicts in therapy the chance to get back to a regular daily schedule and thereby get back to work" - Our translation.)

Presumably, under such a scheme, dolies would be zapped with a few volts if they went near a pub or a bookies and be rewarded for visits to the dole office. The device could wake up the slothful at 6am, just to get them in the habit of getting up early and keep an eye on them were they to stray in the direction of the local drug dealer. µ

L'INQS
Bild
Hessian Justice ministry