Tags which monitor violent criminals for alcohol have notched up a 97 per cent success rate, figures reveal.
The electronic ‘sobriety tags’, which detect alcohol in perspiration, trigger a remote alarm if offenders drink in breach of probation conditions.
A total of 3,121 offenders have been monitored by the tags since a Welsh pilot scheme was extended to England 12 months ago, with 3,027 staying sober.
The electronic ‘sobriety tags’, which detect alcohol in perspiration, trigger a remote alarm if offenders drink in breach of probation conditions. A stock image is used above
Offenders who break a booze ban can face jail or a fine. Crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse said: ‘We are ramping up our use of this innovative technology because it is working.’
Alcohol plays a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime.
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The Ministry of Justice has already announced that use of sobriety tags will be expanded later this year as part of a £183million programme.
They are currently available for magistrates to impose as part of a community sentence.
From the summer the devices will also be used in England to monitor offenders who are released from jail.
Alcohol plays a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime in the UK, and the social and economic cost of drink-related harm is estimated to be around £21.5billion per year.
About a fifth of offenders supervised by the Probation Service have an alcohol problem.
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