Tagging to replace prison for some

Scotland’s justice minister Jim Wallace last
week announced that more people will be subject to community
supervision with electronic tagging following their convictions.
The move is aimed at reducing the prison population.

As part of the Criminal Justice Bill, Wallace
said the contract for providing electronic tagging throughout
Scotland has been awarded to Reliance Monitoring Services – which
already runs a pilot scheme in Hamilton – from May 2002.

As part of the bill, restriction of liberty
orders will be introduced which will allow tagging to be a
condition of probation orders, drug treatment and testing
orders.

The move has been welcomed by most groups
working with offenders.