Taxpayers foot £8m bill for virtual ‘geo fences’ to corral freed offenders

HOW THE LATEST GPS TAGGING SYSTEM SHOULD WORK...

TAXPAYERS face a multi-million pound bill for hi-tech satellite tracking devices to keep criminals out of jail.

The Scottish Government has awarded a lucrative £4 million-ayear contract to security firm G4S to expand electronic monitoring of offenders, over two years.

G4S will continue to oversee the use of radio frequency ankle tags, which have been used for years to confine offenders to their homes overnight as an alternative to prison or under early release from jail – referred to as a Home Detention Curfew.

However, the firm will also provide and monitor new Global Positioning System (GPS) tags – which have never before been used in Scotland. This will allow ‘geo fencing’ – virtual geographic boundaries that enable selected areas to be ‘cordoned off’ to keep offenders either in or out.

The move is part of Justice Secretary Michael Matheson’s drive to cut the number of inmates in Scottish jails, which will include

‘Public safety must always be paramount’

a presumption against sentences of less than a year.

But critics have warned that tagging offenders rather than imprisoning them should not be used as a way of saving money at the expense of public safety.

There are around 1,280 offenders tagged in Scotland – but if the Management of Offenders Bill is passed when it goes before the Scottish parliament later this year, the figure could more than double.

Last year’s Programme for Government stated: ‘Electronic monitoring is a powerful tool to aid the delivery of community justice.

‘As part of the Management of Offenders Bill we will expand and strengthen the use of tagging.’

Unlike radio frequency tags, which alert authorities when an offender is not at a certain address, GPS tags can track an offender’s exact location. Exclusion zones, such as schools, shopping centres or football stadiums, can be set up, triggering an alarm if an offender strays near or into them. Tags can also create an inclusion zone that the offender is not allowed to leave, or ban them from associating with other people who are also tagged.

G4S’s original five-year Scottish home detention tagging contract – worth £2.8 million a year – had been due to expire at the end of March but last week the Scottish Government awarded a two-year extension, worth an additional £8 million. G4S has been awarded the contract despite being under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for over-billing the Ministry of Justice for electronic monitoring south of the Border.

Last night Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr MSP said: ‘This contract makes clear the SNP’s plans to increase the use of tagging.

‘While it certainly does have a place in our justice system, public safety must always be the paramount consideration. This must not simply be an excuse for the SNP to cut costs.’

David Byrne, managing director of monitoring technologies and services at G4S, said: ‘There will always be crimes where a prison sentence is the most appropriate punishment, but it has been clearly demonstrated internationally that short-term prison sentences do not reduce reoffending.

‘We are very pleased to be given the opportunity to continue to support the Government in providing an effective electronic monitoring programme.’ A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The expansion of electronic monitoring, including GPS technology, will increase the options available to manage and monitor offenders in the community.

‘The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a decisive shift in the balance between community and custodial sentences by increasing the use of community interventions.’