From: Zphobic (zphobic@softhome.net)
Date: Mon Feb 25 2002 - 19:58:19 MST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,658294,00.html
Blunkett plans to tag young offenders
Staff and agencies
Tuesday February 26, 2002
The home secretary, David Blunkett, today announced plans to electronically
tag juvenile offenders as young as 12 to crack down on repeat offences by
teenage "thugs".
In an extension of the existing tagging scheme, Mr Blunkett plans to enforce
bail restrictions by attaching an electronic device to the arms or legs of
offenders aged between 12 and 16.
The courts will have access to tagging if they believe the teenagers are
likely to commit further imprisonable offences on bail.
The project - expected to tag 1,800 young offenders in its first year - is
also a bid to restore confidence in the justice system, which magistrates
believe is failing to stop young troublemakers appearing before them time
after time.
Mr Blunkett said: "My message is that there will be no untouchables in our
criminal justice system. It is not acceptable for young criminals to carry
on offending after they have been arrested and placed on bail."
He told BBC Radio 4 that tagging child offenders was essential to tackling
street crime "because people are sick and tired of them being put back on
the street unsupervised, untagged and insecure, actually carrying on doing
what they did before".
Tagged children will face lengthy curfews in a bid to keep them off the
streets and out of trouble while they are on bail.
Tagging will provide an additional option to magistrates who do not want to
jail juveniles but who fear they will re-offend if released on unconditional
bail.
Adults are not tagged on bail because it was not considered "cost effective"
and are remanded if magistrates feel they will re-offend, a Home Office
spokesman said.
The tags work by triggering an alarm installed in an offender's home, which
alerts operators by phone that they have broken the curfew.
A pilot scheme will begin in six areas - London, Greater Manchester,
Northumbria, West Midlands, Thames Valley and Avon & Somerset - in eight
weeks and go national on June 1. Young offenders will not need to have a
criminal record to be tagged and could feasibly be put on the scheme after
being arrested for serious offences for the first time.
A Home Office spokesman said a maximum of 6,000 youngsters could be tagged
but refused to disclose how much the initiative will cost.
Not everyone agrees that tagging is the answer, and some fear that tagging
convicted juveniles will lead to youngsters treating the tags as badges of
criminal honour.
The home secretary today also announced the creation of the London youth
crime task force to tackle street crime by improving the youth justice
system.
It will target mainly under-18s involved in street crime. Police believe
each London borough has a hardcore of about 20 to 30 prolific young
offenders.
The Metropolitan Police have launched a crackdown on street crime, Operation
Safer Streets, and reassigned 500 officers to tackle the problem after
figures showed it had risen 49% in January compared with last year.
Mr Blunkett said the task force would involve all agencies dealing with
prolific juvenile offenders by looking at "blockages and obstacles to
effective and swift justice from crime investigation through to sentencing".
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