Will CCTV cameras be used to help enforce Curfew Orders ?
What about the "unofficial" curfews being imposed on young people by some local police forces ?
Public accountability ?
HOME OFFICE
100/98 17 March 1998
HOME OFFICE SEEK BIDDERS FOR ELECTRONIC TAGGING CONTRACTS
The Home Office is seeking contractors to supply electronic
monitoring services in England and Wales as part of a major expansion
in the use of tagging.
Companies from a wide range of relevant sectors including the
security, telecommunications and electronics industry, are being
encouraged to consider the business opportunities created by the
increased use of tagging.
Successful contractors will initially be required to provide
electronic monitoring services for the Home Detention Curfew scheme
under which selected short term prisoners may spend up to the last
two months of their sentence in the community, subject to an
electronically monitored curfew. The scheme should become operational
in early 1999.
Successful bidders will be required to provide electronic monitoring
services for other purposes as required. This includes the
continuation of the trials currently ongoing in several parts of the
country - including the use of tagging to enforce Curfew Orders under
section 12 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991.
Home Office Minister Joyce Quin today announced that the tagging
enforced Curfew Orders will be made available to all courts in
England and Wales in due course.
Answering a parliamentary question from Vernon Coaker MP (Gedling)
Ms Quin said:
"Curfew Orders enforced by electronic monitoring are at present
available as a penalty to the courts in restricted pilot areas. It is
our intention that these orders should in due course be made
available to all courts in England and Wales.
"The roll-out of curfew orders will follow the establishment of the
Home Detention Curfew scheme according to a timetable to be discussed
with those concerned and as resources allow."
NOTE TO EDITORS:
1. The Home Office has invited bidders through the attached notice
placed in the Official Journal of the European Conmmunity on 13 March
1998 Expressions of interest must be submitted to the Home Office by
21 April 1998. Contracts will be for five years. An Electronic
Monitoring Services prospective bidders conference will take place on
Tuesday 7 april
2. Tagging involves the fitting of a small electronic device on the
wrist or ankle of an offender and installing a monitoring device at
their place of curfew. If the offender is not within the range set
by the conditions of a curfew (usually the perimeter of a home)
during the curfew hours, then the equipment will detect the absence
and report it over a data link to a central monitoring service.
Violations can lead to the curfew being revoked and the offender
being returned to the courts or prison.
3. In England and Wales tagging is currently being used under the
Criminal Justice Act 1991, which gave the courts powers to impose
curfew orders on offenders aged 16 and over, enforced by electronic
monitoring. Trial of these curfew orders have been carried out since
1995 in Berkshire, Greater Manchester and Norfolk, with the
electronic monitoring service provided by private contractors. They
are responsible for providing and installing equipment, monitoring
compliance and reporting breaches of the curfew. The trial areas were
extended in 1997 to cover West Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and
the Middlesex probation area.
4. Over 1000 curfew orders have been made in the pilot areas with
more than 80 per cent of offenders successfully completing their
sentence. The trials have demonstrated the reliability of the
equipment used.
5. The Home Secretary announced his plans for Home Detention
Curfews to Parliament on 20 November 1997. The required legislation
is contained in the Crime and Disorder Bill currently before
Parliament. The scheme represents the biggest expansion to date of
the use of electronic monitoring in England Wales and the first
national scheme of its kind in the United Kingdom.
6. Further powers were given to the courts in 1997 enabling them to
impose curfew orders on persistent petty offenders, fine defaulters,
and as a community punishment for 10-15 year old offenders. These
measure have been trialled by the courts in Manchester and Norfolk
since the beginning of 1998. These trials will continue to June 1999
but no decision has yet been taken on extending the powers
nationally.