Criminals may be banned from drinking
THEY MAY ALSO HAVE TO WEAR NEW SOBRIETY TAGS
CRIMINALS in Wales could be banned from drinking to cut alcohol-fuelled crime. Anyone who commits alcoholfuelled crimes can be banned from drinking and ordered to wear a “sobriety tag” by judges. The criminals can be forced to wear the tag for up to a year.
Offenders with an alcohol ban on community sentences have stayed sober on 97 per cent of the days they were tagged.
The World-first move was designed in a bid to reduce boozerelated crime, which costs £21 billion a year.
Offenders released from prison face being banned from drinking from last week under world-first plans to curb alcohol-fuelled crime. For the first time, serious and prolific offenders will be tagged with devices to monitor alcohol levels in their sweat.
The device will help probation officers to keep a close eye on offenders’ behaviour and help them steer clear of crime by giving them an incentive to break their bad habits.
Around 12,000 offenders will wear such a tag over the next three years.
Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, Dominic Raab MP said: “This innovative technology has been successful in policing community sentences with offenders complying over 97 percent 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 £21 billion bill each year.
As part of a national roll-out, the tags will be used on offenders coming out of prison under Probation Service supervision in Wales, and the scheme will be applied in England next summer.
Offenders will either have a licence condition that requires them to go teetotal for up to a year or have their drinking levels monitored because their risk of reoffending increases after heavy consumption.
Alcohol tags have been available for judges and magistrates to hand down to offenders serving community sentences since last October.
The move is part of the Government’s plan to tackle and cut crime, expanding the use of innovative technology like tags to protect the public and drive down reoffending.
Earlier this year, the Government launched another worldfirst, using GPS tags to track prolific robbers, thieves and burglars. Around 10,000 such offenders are expected to be tagged over the next three years to stop them reoffending and help police catch them if they carry on.
In total, an extra £183 million is being invested in the next three years to almost double the number of people tagged at any one time from around 13,500 this year to approximately 25,000 by 2025.
Welsh probation officers are looking forward to the new approach.
Amy Ellie, North Wales probation officer, said: “I think the tag is an excellent addition to the tools we have at our disposal to protect the public and support offenders to achieve positive changes to their lives.
“The tag will have a wonderful impact because when we ask offenders for whom we know alcohol is a risk factor what they are drinking they can tell us ‘nothing’. We might know that’s not true, but we can’t guess the scale of the problem.
“The tag forces people to be honest.”