Ankle tags are finally coming to Ireland – Do they work?

The €2.1m pilot scheme is being rolled out on a 12-month trial basis, and the contract signed with producer Allied Universal Electronic Monitoring allows for the use of between 30 and 50 tags.

The Department of Justice said it is anticipated that each tag may be used up to three times within a 12-month period and could monitor up to 150 individuals.

"The exact number of people monitored will depend on a range of factors including individuals’ personal circumstances, their ongoing suitability, and compliance with conditions," it said.

The new contract began on August 14 and has a duration of 12 months, with an option to extend for one further period of 12 months.

The department said the pilot programme will become operational later this year, and will be rolled out on a phased basis.

“Public safety is a priority, and considerations such as the profile of offender, nature, type, and seriousness of the offence will be evaluated when assessing suitability for electronic monitoring.

“It is used in many jurisdictions as an additional tool to support the management and monitoring of offenders. The pilot phase will have the capacity to monitor between 90 and 150 individuals over a 12-month period."

The new monitors are hoped to allow for more offenders to be allowed to reside at home while on bail, alleviating prison crowding which is currently a serious issue in Irish prisons.

Governments use these devices to track the location of individuals to make sure they are complying with the terms of their release, which could be a night time curfew or avoiding a certain area.

Issues with the monitors range from false alarms, faulty GPS tracking and batteries draining unexpectedly.

Some studies in the US where the tags are used widely have shown they can be useful for ensuring that sex and drug offenders comply with the terms of their parole.

"The quantitative analysis demonstrates that EM reduces offenders’ risk of failure by 31 percent and that global positioning system (GPS) monitoring results in 6 percent fewer supervision failures compared to radio frequency (RF). All categories of offenders, regardless of offense type, experienced fewer
supervision violations as a result of EM," the research paper said.