Alcohol tags helping thousands of offenders stay sober
More than 97 per cent of offenders fitted with so-called sobriety tags to help curb drink-fuelled crime have stayed off alcohol, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
In the 12 months since they were introduced in England following a successful pilot in Wales, 3,121 offenders have been monitored by the tags, with more than 3,000 staying sober.
Evidence shows alcohol plays a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime in the UK, with the social and economic cost of drink-related harm estimated to be around £21.5 billion a year.
Minister of State for Crime and Policing Kit Malthouse said: “We are ramping up our use of this innovative technology because it is working, with offenders staying sober 97 per cent of the time.
“It is not only protecting the public from the scourge of alcohol-fuelled crime – it also gives probation officers the chance to work with offenders to help them turn their lives around.
Since last April, courts have been able to order offenders to wear an alcohol tag as part of a community sentence when their crime was driven by alcohol. The tag takes a sample of their sweat every 30 minutes and alerts the Probation Service if the offender has been drinking.
Those found breaking their ban can face a prison sentence and fines.
The MoJ is planning to roll out the tags to other offenders once they are released from prison in the summer.
By 2025, it estimates that 12,000 offenders will have had their drinking monitored by the tags – part of the Government’s £183 million expansion of electronic monitoring.
Roughly 20 per cent of offenders supervised by the Probation Service have an alcohol problem.
The Government says it will be investing £183 million into the expansion of electronic monitoring. As well as sobriety devices, GPS monitoring equipment is now deployed across 19 police force areas – roughly half of England and Wales – so that burglars, robbers and thieves that have served a prison sentence of a year or more are tagged on release. Their whereabouts will be monitored by GPS satellites for up to 12 months.
Alcohol Monitoring on Licence was launched in Wales in November 2021 and will be rolled out to England this summer.