WIREDGOV

New research published yesterday shows that the majority of people support tagging criminals. Three quarters of the public (72%) support tagging prisoners out on parole until the end of their sentence while nearly two thirds (64%) support the use of ankle tags for those serving a community sentence.

The report, Future of Corrections, by think tank Policy Exchange says that the current system of tagging is in desperate need of reform. A more effective use of tagging, where police and probation officers are directly involved in keeping track of offenders and recommending to prison governors and the courts which criminals should be tagged, could save hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer money and help the Coalition achieve its goal of stabilising the prison population by 2015.

The current procurement system is outdated and offers poor value for money to the taxpayer. Since tagging was first introduced in the UK in 1989, there have been three private sector suppliers each enjoying a monopoly position with little competitive pressure. This has led to a lack of innovation in technology and programmes with the majority of criminals wearing tags confined to night time curfews which do little to prevent them from reoffending during the day.

The report notes that in other countries, in particular the US, ankle bracelets have become smaller, smarter and more durable. The most advanced forms of tags are now GPS-enabled allowing the police to pin point someone’s exact location at all times. However, the lack of competition and the current nature of the contracts in the UK market means the taxpayer is losing out.

If England and Wales replicated the US system, where providers simply hand over the technology to the police and probation officers to monitor and fit the tags, £883million could have been freed up over the past 13 years. This money could have created 2,000 probation or more than 1,200 police officers.

The report makes a number of recommendations including:

Creating a real market by giving suppliers and customers the freedom to design, develop and contracts services that work for and address local priorities and needs

Devolving powers to locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners to decide on how much money, if any, should be spent on tagging and who should provide the services

Give the police a much greater say by asking officers to recommend the most effective use of tagging to prevent and detect crime

Rory Geoghegan, author of the report, “The public and the police support tagging criminals. But we need to be confident that the public is getting the protection and the value for money they need and should rightly expect. Extending the use of tagging without these reforms will just see millions of pounds wasted and a real opportunity to cut crime missed.”

“As technology becomes ever more sophisticated our badly designed procurement system is preventing the police from preventing and detecting crime. We desperately need to create a real market so that the police can get the technology they need to cut burglary, cut robbery and other crimes that have a massive impact on victims and the community.”