- offenders known to reoffend after drinking will face alcohol
bans
- sobriety will be enforced with alcohol monitoring tags worn
for up to a year
- offenders with an alcohol ban on community sentences have
stayed sober on 97 percent of the days they were tagged
- world-first move designed to cut booze-fuelled crime which
costs society £21 billion a year
For the first time, serious and prolific offenders will be tagged
with devices which monitor alcohol levels in sweat if their
probation officer thinks they will be more likely to reoffend
when drinking.
The tag will help probation officers keep a closer eye on
offenders’ behaviour and support them to turn their backs on
crime. It will also provide offenders with the incentive to break
bad habits as breaching the ban could see them back in prison.
Alcohol plays a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime in the
UK and roughly 20 per cent of offenders supervised by the
Probation Service are classed as having an alcohol problem.
Around 12,000 offenders will wear such a tag over the next 3
years.
Offenders with an alcohol ban on community sentences have stayed
sober on 97 percent of the days they were tagged and it is
expected to have a significant impact on prison leavers’ drinking
habits.
Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor,
said:
This innovative technology has been successful in policing
community sentences with offenders complying over 97 percent of
the time.
Rolling the tags out further will help cut alcohol-fuelled crime,
which causes untold misery for victims and lands society with a
£21 billion bill each year.
Offenders now have a clear choice. If they don’t work with
probation staff to curb their drinking and change their ways,
they face being sent back to jail.
From today, as part of a national roll-out, the tags will be used
on offenders coming out of prison under Probation Service
supervision in Wales, and the scheme will be applied in England
next summer.
Offenders will either have a licence condition which requires
them to go teetotal for up to a year or have their drinking
levels monitored because their risk of reoffending increases
after heavy consumption.
Alcohol tags have been available for judges and magistrates to
hand down to offenders serving community sentences since last
October.
The move is part of the government’s plan to tackle and cut
crime, expanding the use of innovative technology like tags to
protect the public and drive down reoffending.
Earlier this year, the government launched another world-first,
using GPS tags to track prolific robbers, thieves and burglars.
Around 10,000 such offenders are expected to be tagged over the
next 3 years to stop them reoffending and help police catch them
if they carry on.
In total, an extra £183 million is being invested in the next 3
years to almost double the number of people tagged at any one
time from around 13,500 this year to approximately 25,000 by
2025.
