Scotland: Scottish criminals could be forced to wear ankle tags to stop them drinking alcohol in radical booze crackdown
By Katy Pagan
January 3, 2020
The Scottish Government has given the green light to ‘remote alcohol monitoring’ and ‘sobriety tags’ after awarding a multi-million-pound security firms contract.
The anti-booze ankle tags can detect if yobs have consumed alcohol by monitoring their sweat every 30 minutes.
But ministers are still in talks about handing Scottish courts the power to force criminals whose convictions are linked to alcohol to wear the tags.
If this goes ahead, they could then be forced to go alcohol free for months to tackle the drink problem which contributed to their crimes.
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The system, which is already operating across Europe and America and is being trialled in England, could also be used for prisoners who are released on home curfew.
Any failure to comply would be a criminal offence.
But ministers have been urged to avoid using the new technology as a soft touch to “empty prisons”.
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr told the Daily Mail: “There’s definitely a place for measures like this, especially for those whose offending is specifically linked to alcohol.
“But they absolutely cannot be used as an excuse to empty jails as opposed to a targeted and thorough intervention.
“Victims of crime will be furious if offenders whose crimes are serious enough to warrant prison are instead given these tags.
“We know the SNP like soft touch initiatives so it has to prove that won’t be the case here.”
The Scottish parliament passed the new Management of Offenders Act in 2019, which allows for an expansion in the use of electronic monitoring of criminals.
It also made it a legal first to use remote monitoring of alcohol consumption as part of community sentences.
According to official figures, 46 per cent of the 172,000 violent crimes which were committed in Scotland in 2017-18 were alcohol-related.
It means tens of thousands of criminals, including thugs and those guilty of domestic abuse, could potentially be forced to wear sobriety tags as part of their sentence.
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr says they shouldn’t be used as a ‘soft touch’ to empty prisons
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “The Management of Offenders Act widens the availability of electronic monitoring and allows for the introduction of other technologies, including remote monitoring of alcohol consumption and GPS.
“We are discussing with partners how such enhanced monitoring may be used in future when the relevant parts of the Act come into force.”
Security services firm G4S will run the electronic monitoring operations for five years.
The Daily Mail reports the company has already begun the process of appointing a subcontractor to provide the ‘sobriety tags’.
G4S service director Angela Smith said: “This key win reinforces our position as a global market leader in electronic monitoring.
“Our continued work with the Scottish Government will allow us to introduce our latest developments in technology which will further enhance capabilities available to criminal justice agencies in Scotland.”