UK government launches national e-tagging scheme

The UK nationwide rollout of an electronic tagging system for prisoners will kick off next week with the early release of 200 offenders.

The new system will free up 4,000 prison beds over the next four months. It allows certain offenders - all of whom must be over 18 and serving sentences of under four years - to serve out the last two months remotely.

UK Home Secretary, Jack Straw has backed the scheme since last year, but until now technical problems in trial rollouts have prevented nationwide adoption of the system. Straw now says he is convinced that the system is ready.

The Prison Service houses nearly 65,000 prisoners and each offender sets the government back £24,000 per year. Electronic tagging will cost £3,500 per year.

Not everyone is backing the scheme, however. Earlier this month, reform lobby group, Howard League said they preferred prisoner supervision be human rather than technical. They also noted that the scheme only works for prisoners with a fixed address.