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UK: Electronic tagging "fiasco"

01 July 1995

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A pilot scheme to test the practicality of electronic tags on offenders began in Manchester and Norfolk at the beginning of July. It took another month before a suitable offender was found to initiate the "house arrest" experiment. The project was originally scheduled to start in early June but was delayed when equipment failed. The latest scheme follows on from tests in Nottingham, Newcastle and London in 1989 when the courts agreed to tag just 49 people. Most of the people tested then simply tore off their tags and ran away. The National Council of the Association of Chief Officers of Probation observed trials in Sweden and the USA and concluded that the tags were "largely ineffective, very expensive, and did not deal with high risk offenders." They have described the current round of tests as a fiasco. Independent 2.6.95, 16.7.95.

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