The electronic tagging system, which is set to monitor thousands of offenders released early from prison, is reportedly failing to alert authorities about potential breaches of conditions, a watchdog has warned. Martin Jones, HM Inspector of Probation in England and Wales, stated that the current system depends on police and probation officers manually looking up individual cases to determine if potential breaches require further investigation.
Mr Jones said the system needs to be updated to automatically send alerts if a former inmate breaches an exclusion zone. This warning follows a government announcement that up to 5,000 prisoners would be released from 1 October to address prison overcrowding. The scheme was paused last month, and plans were announced on Tuesday to exclude prisoners guilty of rape, serious child sexual abuse offences, and grooming, reducing the number of releases by 1,000. Killers and domestic abusers will still be eligible for early release, the Ministry of Justice confirmed.
The number of people being electronically monitored in England and Wales has doubled to 28,700 in five years and is estimated to rise by 22,000 newly tagged individuals each year from 2027. Mr Jones expressed concern that the processes and system may not have kept pace with the increasing number of tagged individuals, stating that this expansion requires a significant increase in staff to monitor offenders effectively.