Public order offenders targeted in tagging plan
Sex offenders and paedophiles released from prison could also be tagged under the plan, which may be introduced as early as next year.
Mr McDowell said a private body could operate the monitoring system, but State officials, probably the Probation Service, would be the ones to respond.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Prison Officers’ Association yesterday, Mr McDowell said tagging would be part of an overall expansion of non-custodial penalties.
“Electronic tagging is extensively used in other jurisdictions. I think the technology has now developed to a stage where we’ll be in a position to evaluate which of the systems on offer is best,” Mr McDowell said.
He said public order offenders would be the main type of offender tagged.
“Instead of sending a young man who behaves in a drunk and disorderly fashion, or involved in low-degree fracas in the street, to a custodial sentence, which will have a very significant life-altering effect, that person could be tagged.”
He added: “If he ventured a few feet from his or her home, the Probation Service or the monitoring service is alerted, and he or she is made accountable for breach of the conditions.”
Mr McDowell said provisions would be included in forthcoming legislation, followed by a Department of Justice study in the autumn, allowing for its introduction soon after.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors last night welcomed the move, saying it had recommended tagging a year ago.
However, the Irish Penal Reform Trust expressed concern and said those who would qualify for tagging would be people not sentenced to prison terms anyway.
A spokesman for the Probation Service branch of the trade union IMPACT said they had not been consulted about the move.
However, he said they were not “totally against” tagging, but such a system would need extra resources and staff.
On prison overcrowding, Mr McDowell told the POA conference there was a risk of returning to the revolving door scandal of the 1990s if more spaces were not built.
He said the number of prisoners given temporary release jumped from 200 in 2001 to 325 in 2004.
The minister intends to provide up to 1,000 new places, bringing the prison population to over 4,000.
POA president Gabriel Keaveny said in one case a prisoner jailed for six months was given temporary release two days later.
Mr McDowell said he would like to see greater use of financial penalties for public order offences as well as partly suspended sentences.
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