Under a new tough crackdown on violent offenders, prisoner will be prohibited from drinking after being released from jail.
Serious and prolific criminals will be forced to wear an electronic tag – which triggers an alarm if it detects alcohol in their system – to prevent them from reoffending.
They will be required to wear the devices for up to a year under the scheme, which ministers said was a ‘world first’. The technology has already been used in the UK for those on community sentences – but this is the first time it has been imposed on prison-leavers. The tag will sound an alarm at a monitoring center to notify probation officers if alcohol is found in sweat.
Criminals who are serious and persistent will have to wear electronic tags that activate an alarm when alcohol is detected in their system. (File photo)
An alert can be taken to mean that ex-offenders are returned to prison after being found in breach of their licence conditions. The UK has 39% of all violent crime due to alcohol. Over the next three-years, around 12,000 criminals will have the tags. It all starts in Wales today and ends in England next summer.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said: ‘This technology has been successful in policing community sentences with offenders complying over 97 per cent 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 £21billion 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.’
He added: ‘We are the first government in the world to use alcohol monitoring tags on offenders coming out of jail to reduce their risk of reoffending.’
Amy Ellie, a North Wales probation officer, said: ‘The tag forces people to be honest. That honesty opens up conversations that we wouldn’t ordinarily be able to have.
Alcohol is a major factor in 39% of all violent crime in England (File photo)
‘Now we can see if their consumption is reasonable, or if there’s a worrying pattern, and if so, what is contributing to that pattern.’
Andy Roberts, of Greater Manchester Probation Service, who led an alcohol-monitoring pilot scheme, said: ‘We found the tag acted as a constant reminder.
‘Offenders said they were less likely to do something “stupid” or “reckless” and it brought clarity to bigger decision making.’ Earlier this year, the Government introduced GPS tags to track prolific robbers, thieves and burglars.
Over the next three-years, up to 10,000 offenders like these will likely be tagged to help stop their reoffending as well as to catch police if they are convicted of new crimes.
In total, an extra £183million is being invested to almost double the number of people tagged at any one time from around 13,500 this year to approximately 25,000 by 2025.