Terrorists who pass lie-detector tests could have greater freedom
Fears raised over policy to increase the number of high-risk criminals taking polygraph tests on release
TERRORISTS, paedophiles and rapists could be considered for greater freedoms on their release if they pass lie detector tests, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
As the Government increases the number of high-risk criminals who can have the tests added to the conditions of their licence, official documents admit that the current evidence on whether they work is “neither extensive nor of good quality”.
Despite concerns over accuracy, probation workers have been instructed to tell those offenders to whom the polygraph test applies that it can be “protective” for them and could “be a possible route to having licence restrictions reviewed”.
The Ministry of Justice insisted that the results of the test alone could not lead to relaxing of licence conditions as they are part of a range of assessment tools which would need to show the offender had complied with all of their conditions over a long period of time.
The Government has increasingly expanded its use of the polygraph tests to monitor serious criminals upon their release on the basis they are “80 to 90 per cent accurate”.
Last month, it announced that it will carry out a pilot testing the most serious domestic abusers, including murderers, who are considered to be a high risk of re-offending. Such tests have been carried out on serious sexual offenders since 2007 and additional powers to use them on “high-risk” terrorists were announced last year.
But Coral Dando, professor of forensic psychology at the University of Westminster, who has researched ways of detecting deception among offenders, said that she was “sceptical” about their use and people “can get courses on how to pass a lie-detector test on the internet”.
She said using it as a risk assessment tool was “extremely problematic” and it has the potential to give offenders confidence that “they can beat the test, so they don’t need to behave”.
Prisoners can only be required to carry out polygraph tests as part of the conditions of their release if they are convicted of serious offences related to terrorism, sexual offences and domestic abuse and have been sentenced to a custodial sentence of more than 12 months. The Government has insisted that they are merely an additional tool to monitor those likely to reoffend and therefore ensure public safety.
In official documents governing the use of the tests, seen by The Telegraph, it says it is “important” that offenders should understand that as well as “risk management” the polygraph condition can be “protective to them” if they comply with their licence conditions.
“It can, for example, be a possible route to having licence restrictions reviewed if, through managing their own behaviour, the assessment of the supervised individual’s risk of serious harm is lowered,” the document notes.
When a criminal completes “several successive” tests that indicate they are “not deceptive” then it could, “alongside the individual’s general response to supervision and progress... allow an adjustment downwards of the individual’s risk of serious harm”.
The results of the polygraph cannot be used as evidence in court, but information revealed during the sessions can be used to consider recalling an offender to prison or placing greater restrictions on their movement.
The MoJ said that of more than 5,000 tests which have been undertaken with sexual offenders two-thirds of them had resulted “in significant disclosures”.
A spokesman said: “Evidence shows polygraph testing works. They are always used in addition to close supervision, behaviour treatment and strict conditions on offenders’ movements and contact with victims.”