ELECTRONIC TAGGING

I tend to associate electronic tagging, whereby prisoners are allowed out on release if they wear a sort of electronic "handcuff" on their ankles, with the United States and other countries with harsh sentencing regimes. In fact, it has existed in Denmark since 2005. However, it is restricted to prisoners whose sentences are less than 6 months, who have their own place to live and who have a job.

If you can fulfil those conditions, then serving a sentence by way of electronic tagging is an attractive alternative to being banged up, not least because the latter would probably lead to loss of job and possibly home. That has now given rise to a problem, namely that the authorities can't keep up with demand. In 2013 an average 293 prisoners served their sentence through electronic tagging; unfortunately, there were some 650 on the waiting list.

Being on the waiting list means that there are criminals running around free who have been found guilty, but who have yet to serve their sentence. This has naturally led to right-wing politicians frothing at the mouth and demanding that said criminals be locked up immediately. A better alternative in my view would be to provide more resources to electronic tagging; but then I have never been a great believer in what a former British Home Secretary once famously said, namely that "prison works".

Walter Blotscher