'More crimes' from tagged offenders

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Just one in 40 tagged individuals committed a crime when the project started in 1999, but by last year the figure had jumped to one in nine, according to Grant Shapps.

His report also said that on average nearly seven crimes were being committed every day by tagged offenders.

Mr Shapps, who obtained statistics by tabling Parliamentary Questions, claims the figures show the Government is releasing unsuitable offenders early to relieve prison overcrowding.

Electronic tagging, officially known as the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme, was launched in 1999. More than 137,000 prisoners have been released since.

Under the scheme, which has cost a total of £342 million, offenders are electronically tagged upon their release from jail and told to observe a curfew. Originally, eligible prisoners could be released up to 60 days before the end of the custodial part of their sentences, but this limit was raised in 2003 to 135.

Mr Shapps, MP for Welwyn Hatfield, claimed the rise in re-offending by tagged prisoners could be partly linked to the pressure of a near-capacity prison population.

He said: "It's now very clear that the prison population crisis has led to thousands of additional crimes by prisoners who have been selected for electronic tagging and thereby released too early from prison."

The Ministry of Justice conceded that the re-offending rate had increased in recent years but said much of this was due to the increase in the maximum curfew period from 60 to 135 days.

"Offenders are spending a longer period of time on the scheme and so an increase in offending committed during the curfew period is to be expected," a spokeswoman said.