LONDON, July 20 (UPI) -- The British government has announced plans to use lie detector tests on sex offenders after they leave prison, with the hope of managing their behavior.
An offender will be made to answer a series of questions regarding his intentions while hooked up to a polygraph machine, Sky News reported Friday. The results of the test could affect the terms of a prisoner's release or land him back in jail.
"It's vital that we protect the public from serious sex offenders. That's why the conditions after they leave prison need to be both strict and rigorously enforced," said a government source, whose name was not reported.
The plans come after a series of pilot testing of the lie detector exam between April 2009 and October 2011. The tests found offenders made twice as many admissions about contacting victims when interviewed using the polygraph machine than when interviewed without the machine, Sky News reported.
"The pilot schemes using lie detectors to manage offenders in the community have been a success," the government source said. "So now we're looking at how it could be rolled out to provide probation officers with more information to manage the most serious sex offenders."
