'Sobriety tags' are set to be rolled out in London, as part of a scheme intended to "keep criminals sober", the Ministry of Justice has announced.
It follows a year long trial of the scheme in four areas of South London -- Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark and Sutton. A new report authored by the Mayor of London's office and the Ministry of Justice claims that the trial had a "92 percent compliance rate".
The tags, which sit on offenders' ankles, perform "around the clock monitoring" of alcohol levels via perspiration. They were made possible by a 2012 order, which allowed courts to force offenders to abstain from alcohol for up to 120 days.
Speaking when the trial first launched, Boris Johnson said the trial would "steer binge drinkers away from repeated criminal behaviour". Now, he says that the scheme has been "a success".
"Alcohol fuelled crimes put a huge strain on frontline services, costing the taxpayer billions of pounds a year," he said in a statement. "From assault, drink driving, to theft and criminal damage, this technology is driving down reoffending and proving rehabilitation does not have to mean prison." "After such a success in South London, it's time to roll out these tags to the rest of the capital and rid our streets of these crimes by helping even more offenders stay off the booze and get back on the right track."
The trial period saw 113 tags imposed for an average of 75 days. These tags were fitted for a range of crimes commonly related to alcohol, including drink-driving and alcohol-related violence. Over 6,500 monitored days, over 298,000 readings were taken -- an average of 48 per day per individual. The scheme had a compliance rate of 92 percent.
The report stresses that the tags are not a one size fits all solution to alcohol related offending, however, and describe it as "another tool in the box of community sentences". "The scheme offers an innovative and tailored response to alcohol related offending," the report said. "Interviewees felt that a period of abstinence had the potential to give offenders a ‘pause’ in drinking, time to reflect on alcohol consumption and its impact on offending behaviour, relationships and work, and an opportunity to break the cycle of routine drinking."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
