THE ELECTRONIC MONITORING OF OFFENDERS IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Abstract

England and Wales is the only European jurisdiction to have experimented with electronic monitoring of offenders, or tagging'. Three experimental schemes, ostensibly targeted on remand prisoners, were established late in 1989, intended to run for six months. On the available evidence they have not been a success. Yet the recent government White Paper Crime, Justice and Protecting the Public (Home Office 1990b) continues to promote the idea of tagging', suggesting that this work be undertaken by a private agency rather than the probation service which--unlike its equivalent in the USA--has dissociated itself from this new development. This paper aims only to map the contours of debate on electronic monitoring in England and Wales, in the context of moves to develop more coercive non-custodial measures generally, and to raise some examples of the moral and political issues to which tagging gives rise.