Waterways will be cleared by ‘chain gangs’

OFFENDERS are to be put to work on Boris Johnson’s “chain gangs” to clear canals and rivers of trolleys, rubbish and graffiti under a £90million expansion of community clean-up projects.

Criminals in high-visibility fluorescent tabards will put in eight million hours of work a year – equivalent to 200,000 weeks – cleaning up streets, alleyways and other open spaces so that justice can be seen to be done.

The move, to be announced today by Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, will see up to 2,000 miles of rivers and canals cleared of debris, litter and graffiti in the first such agreement of its kind with the Canal and River Trust. Ministers believe too many judges and courts have lost confidence in community sentences and are left with no alternative but to send minor offenders to jail on short sentences that can lead to a cycle of petty crime without effective rehabilitation.

Mr Raab, the deputy prime minister, will also announce an extra £183million to nearly double the number of people electronically tagged at any one time, from 13,500 this year to 25,000 by 2025.

Over the next three years, more than 12,000 released prisoners will for the first time be forced to wear sobriety tags to prevent reoffending fuelled by drinking. The tags, which test users’ sweat for alcohol every 30 minutes, have already been trialled in Wales for offenders given community sentences for drink-related crimes and are being expanded across England. It was found offenders stayed sober for 95 per cent of the days that they were monitored.

The tags are part of an offender’s licence conditions, which means a return to jail for breaches.

They can only be applied for 120 days but ministers are considering extending them to a year in the belief that longer periods are needed to consolidate changes in behaviour.

Speaking about the tags, Mr Raab said: “This major increase in high-tech GPS tagging will see us leading the world in using technology to fight crime and keep victims safe.”