Electronic prisoner tagging comes under fire

The UK government's decision to use an electronic tagging device to speed up the release of prisoners has been slammed by reform lobbyists.

Tony Blair will roll out the government's £55m Home Detention Curfew programme at the end of January. Under the scheme offenders will be released up to two months early as long as they agree to wear an electronic tag.

A small electronic transmitter - attached to the prisoner's ankle or wrist - communicates with a monitoring device (usually kept in the prisoner's home). A central monitoring unit is contacted via a telephone line should the offender breach the curfew limitations.

A spokeswoman for UK reform lobby group, Howard League, believes the programme is not the best solution to overcrowding. "Whilst it will ease the strain on the prison service which currently stands at 66,000 [prisoners], we would prefer the supervision to be human rather than technical," she said.

Howard League also pointed out that the scheme, which often relies on confining offenders to their home, does not take into account the proportion of homeless prisoners.

Private contractors such as Securicor and Geographix have been piloting the scheme since 1995. In 1997 a report published by the Home Office found 82 per cent of curfew orders were successfully completed.

A spokesman for Securicor said the project has been "very successful and an evaluation undertaken by the Home Office has been very effective - hence the move to a national scale".

The first prisoners to undergo the national scheme will be released on 28 January.