Record 1,300 offenders set free with tags
MORE than 1,300 criminals are living in the community wearing electronic tags, shocking new figures reveal.
The number has leapt by nearly 17 per cent since April – as the SNP tries to empty jails.
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf admitted last week that he broke Holyrood rules to ramp up electronic monitoring.
Tagging is at a ‘historically high’ level as a result of SNP soft-touch justice policies and concern is growing.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘The SNP must reassure the public that this skyrocketing number of electronic tags is not putting Scots in danger.’ It comes amid a rise in violent crime of nearly 30 per cent in five years.
Tagging firm G4S referred inquiries to the Scottish Government, which said there were 1,315 ‘electronically monitored individuals’ in December 2019, up from 1,224 in November. This rise – 7.4 per cent – was the biggest hike this financial year, and represents an increase of nearly 17 per cent from 1,128 in April.
Ministers say this has been caused by the increased use of Restriction of Liberty Orders (RLOs), handed down by sheriffs, sometimes alongside Community Payback Orders.
But prisoners can also be let out early on Home Detention Curfews (HDCs) – nicknamed armchair custody – after serving a fraction of their sentences.
The Scottish Government figures include both RLOs and
HDCs, but separate Scottish Prison Service (SPS) figures show HDCs currently account for only 33 of the tags.
Their use was cut back after the 2017 murder of father-ofthree Craig McClelland, 31, of Paisley, Renfrewshire, by James Wright, who was unlawfully at large after being freed on a tag.
But numbers are expected to rise after a change to HDC criteria, as managers attempt to limit the prison population.
Last month, MSPs were told ministers had lodged a special legal order ‘breaching the usual process’ to introduce measures to cope with the rise in tagging.
In a letter last week to Tory MSP Graham Simpson, convener of Holyrood’s law reform committee, Mr Yousaf admitted breaking parliamentary rules to allow new electronic monitoring devices to be used due to a shortage in the number of tags available to meet demand.
Government officials have said G4S is ‘electronically monitoring the highest numbers they have had to deal with’.
Mr Kerr added: ‘A near-20 per cent increase in electronic monitoring certainly seems to be getting out of control, and it has clearly caught the SNP on the back foot.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The Management of Offenders Act was passed by a majority of MSPs in June 2019, following parliamentary scrutiny over 15 months, providing the legislative framework to widen the availability of electronic monitoring and, once commenced, it will allow for the introduction of other technologies, including GPS and remote monitoring of alcohol consumption.’