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# Convict Chip Idea Stirs Ire

## Lawyer: Gov. Eyes Inmate Implants

### By Colleen Heild, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer
Autumn 99 - Issue No. 244

Eleanor White's 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!

    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
    close to 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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