Courts to slap on ‘booze bracelets’
Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor Published: 5 July 2015
CRIMINALS who commit alcohol-related offences may be forced to wear “booze bracelets” around their ankles
to curb their drinking.
In an effort to cut the number of crimes fuelled by alcohol, the Ministry of Justice is to allow judges and
magistrates to order the fitting of tags which test for alcohol levels in an offender’s sweat every 30 minutes.
The results are sent electronically to probation officers. If the readings breach specified limits, the probation
service or courts will step in.
The tags, which have undergone trials in south London, will be available as an alternative to prison for those
who carry out offences such as drink driving or violent crimes while under the influence of alcohol. They will
not be used for cases of domestic violence.
Under the sentence — called an alcohol abstinence and monitoring requirement — offenders will be required
not to exceed limits on alcohol consumption for up to four months. During the London pilot scheme, 105
offenders were fitted with tags and more than 90% complied with the required conditions.
Booze bracelets are already used in America. The actress Lindsay Lohan has twice had to wear such a tag: in
2007 after failing to appear for a probation hearing for a drink-driving case and in 2010 after failing to complete
alcohol education classes imposed as part of her sentence for the offence.
The Home Office says alcohol-related crime in England and Wales costs £11bn a year. More than half of violent
crime victims last year said their assailant had consumed alcohol.
Mike Penning, the criminal justice and victims minister, said: “Too much crime and antisocial behaviour is
fuelled by alcohol and committed by offenders who won’t control their drinking. I want the police and other
criminal justice agencies to have the very best technology available to help them take it on.”
Ministry of Justice sources said the government was examining other potential uses for the tags, including
fitting them with GPS technology to pinpoint the location of offenders.
They might also be used by the family courts, for example in cases where a parent’s heavy drinking was feared
to threaten children’s welfare.
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Crime/article1577187.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2015_07_04
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