tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/probation-officer-32067/articlesProbation officer – The Conversation2017-11-28T11:26:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/870572017-11-28T11:26:21Z2017-11-28T11:26:21ZParole violations are driving prison’s revolving door<p>Rapper Meek Mill is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/11/20/how-rapper-meek-mills-actions-in-2007-fueled-racial-politics-in-2017/?utm_term=.969747d9dfd6">back in prison</a> in Pennsylvania for violating the terms of his probation.</p>
<p>According to officials, Mill left the state without permission, did not meet with his probation officer, tested positive for Percocet, failed to complete community service and got into a fight at an airport.</p>
<p>Mill’s case has drawn new attention to how probation and parole violations contribute to <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18613/the-growth-of-incarceration-in-the-united-states-exploring-causes">extremely high rates of incarceration</a> in the United States. These high rates of incarceration are in part driven by reimprisonment of formerly incarcerated individuals, known as recidivism. More than half of people who are released from prison in a given year in the United States will <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18613/the-growth-of-incarceration-in-the-united-states-exploring-causes">return within five years</a>, a phenomenon that has come to be known as prison’s “<a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/%7E/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2011/pewstateofrecidivismpdf.pdf">revolving door</a>.”</p>
<p>Reducing the prison population requires a deeper understanding of what drives the revolving door. The results of our <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/114/42/11103.abstract">recently published study</a> show how parole, even more than probation, plays a key role.</p>
<h2>Studying prison’s revolving door</h2>
<p>In 2012, we set out to understand what drives recidivism in collaboration with Jeffrey D. Morenoff and Anh P. Nyugen, sociologists at the University of Michigan. Based on <a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/599202">previous scholarship</a>, we considered three possible explanations for why so many convicted felons return to prison.</p>
<p>The first is that individuals sentenced to prison may simply be prone to committing crimes. In this explanation, prison itself plays no important role in what happens next. If this explanation is correct, we would observe the same levels of imprisonment even if these individuals were given probation supervision in the community instead of prison. </p>
<p>A second explanation is that prison causes inmates to become more likely to commit a crime upon release. Imprisonment may disrupt ties to family and community, enhance the stigma of a felony conviction, create or exacerbate mental health problems or socialize inmates into criminal ways of thinking. </p>
<p>A third explanation is that instead of prison itself, it is the intensity of parole supervision that follows prison that increases the risk of returning to prison, compared to probation.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/reentry/reentry.cfm">Eighty percent</a> of those sentenced to prison in the U.S. are released early to serve out the remainder of their sentence under supervision, typically called parole. However, some individuals convicted of a felony do not always serve time in prison. Many are sentenced to another kind of supervision called probation. Probation is usually <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/when-prisoners-come-home-9780195160864?cc=us&lang=en&">less intensive than parole</a>. Like Mill, people who violate the terms of their parole or probation supervision can be reimprisoned without committing a new crime.</p>
<h2>A natural experiment</h2>
<p>To test these hypotheses, we obtained data on every person convicted of a felony in Michigan from 2003 to 2006 from the Michigan Department of Corrections and other state agencies – more than 100,000 individuals. We followed them through parole or probation violations, convictions for new felonies and returns to prison over a five-year period. Then, we compared the trajectories of those who were sentenced to prison and released on parole to those sentenced to probation.</p>
<p>We relied on what social scientists call a “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/natural-experiments-in-the-social-sciences/96A64CBDC2A2952DC1C68AF77DE675AF">natural experiment</a>.” We noticed that Michigan, like many states, randomly assigns cases to judges. This policy explicitly recognizes that different judges will assign different sentences to similar defendants based on their own professional judgment and taste. The state does this for the sake of fairness, and to prevent defendants and prosecutors from “<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=963468">judge shopping</a>.”</p>
<p>Imagine a courthouse with two judges, Judge Tuff and Judge Jentle. Judge Tuff is more likely to sentence individuals to prison, all else equal. Some defendants will go to prison rather than serve probation only because they were randomly assigned to Judge Tuff rather than Judge Jentle. Similarly, others will serve probation rather than go to prison only because they were randomly assigned to Judge Jentle rather than Judge Tuff.</p>
<p>This random assignment of judges mimics the way a scientist would design a randomized, controlled experiment in the lab. There are no obvious differences between who gets randomly assigned to one judge and who gets assigned to the other. For all intents and purposes, the groups are identical. So if one group ends up with stricter sentences, it’s likely due to the judge’s predilections rather than to anything specific to the individual defendants and their crimes. </p>
<h2>Imprisonment begets imprisonment</h2>
<p>We found that the revolving door is not simply the consequence of imprisoning the most crime-prone individuals. Being sentenced to prison, rather than probation, increased the probability of serving additional time in prison within three years after release by 18 to 19 percent.</p>
<p>Our results also demonstrate that imprisonment for parole violations – rather than convictions for new felonies – accounts for a large majority of this effect. We found no evidence that imprisonment increased overall criminal behavior after release. Rather than being due to differences in criminality between prisoners and probationers, this finding suggests that the parole supervision treats individuals who violate more harshly than probation supervision. In Michigan, the <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/110423">most common parole violations</a> that lead to reimprisonment are moving residences without notifying the parole officer, possession of a weapon that is not a firearm, failure to register as a sex offender, substance abuse and driving without permission.</p>
<p>Taken together, these results imply that the rise in incarceration in the United States over the last 40 years is, in part, a self-generating or accelerating process.</p>
<p>Although serving time in prison does not appear to lead to less crime after release, it does reduce crime during the period of imprisonment simply because people are isolated from society. Criminologists refer to this effect as “incapacitation.” However, the incapacitation effect is smaller than one might expect. Only 5 to 8 percent of those sentenced to probation rather than prison were convicted of a new felony in the first year after their sentence, when almost all of the prisoners were still in prison. </p>
<h2>Reducing mass incarceration</h2>
<p>Our results have important policy implications. </p>
<p>First, probation could be used more frequently as an alternative to imprisonment. The <a href="http://www.uscourts.gov/news/2013/07/18/supervision-costs-significantly-less-incarceration-federal-system">cost savings associated with probation</a> is large relative to the incapacitation effect of imprisonment. Our results show that a prison sentence does little to reduce criminal offending after release relative to offending by probationers.</p>
<p>Second, because parole violations played a substantial role in the growth of the prison population, giving technical parole violators punishments other than prison has great potential to shrink the prison population. </p>
<p>The next step is to develop a better understanding of which alternative punishments are most effective at reducing crime and preventing future involvement in the criminal justice system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This study was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (SES1061018), with additional support from center grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the Population Studies Centers at the University of Michigan (R24 HD041028) and at UC Berkeley (R24 HD073964). Shawn Bushway also receives funding from the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David J. Harding receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation. </span></em></p>A study of 100,000 convicted felons shows why rethinking parole may be the key to reversing mass incarceration.Shawn D. Bushway, Professor of Public Administration and Policy, University at Albany, State University of New YorkDavid J. Harding, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/820932017-09-22T07:56:35Z2017-09-22T07:56:35ZA pay rise for prison officers won’t solve the wider crisis within the justice system<p>Prison officers are <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41241295">to receive</a> a 1.7% pay rise in a move which effectively breaks the 1% public sector pay cap, but is far less than the 5% the Prison Officer’s Association had been asking for.</p>
<p>The move comes as the government is trying to recruit 2,500 new prison officers in an effort to combat the current crisis of violence and disorder in prisons. The government argues that the extra officers will allow the newly created HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPP) – formally the National Offender Management Service – to run 109 of the 123 prisons in England and Wales safely and securely. The others are run by private providers.</p>
<p>On paper, being a prison officer <a href="https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/job-profiles/prison-officer">presents the possibility</a> of having an interesting and varied career. Officers work in both prisons and secure psychiatric hospitals, earning from £20,000 up to £38,000 a year for a 37- to 39-hour-week. No particular qualifications are required. There is on-the-job training (an initial ten weeks) and the possibility of developing specialist skills in different aspects of rehabilitation.</p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/638467/hmpps-workforce-statistics-30-june-2017.pdf">figures</a> from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) show that at the end of June 2017 there were the highest number of prison officers in post since 2013 – due to the recruitment of 665 new officers over the previous year. </p>
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<p>This has been helped by the introduction of a new graduate scheme enabling people with university degrees to work in frontline prison roles. The scheme, called <a href="http://unlockedgrads.org.uk">Unlocked Grads</a>, says it encourages the “brightest and the best” to become leaders in criminal justice settings. This is a new initiative and only time will tell if it has a positive impact.</p>
<h2>The state of prisons</h2>
<p>The trade union, the Prison Officer’s Association, says that the prison service is in meltdown. It <a href="https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/articles/uk-prisons-officers-protest-over-staff-shortages-and-safety-concerns">argues</a> that prisons have become a place of violence – for both prisoners and prison officers. </p>
<p>The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Bromley%20Briefings/Summer%202017%20factfile.pdf">has reported</a> that 27% of frontline prison officers quit after completing two years in the role. A decline of support staff means that officers have to cover other tasks, diverting them from direct prisoner work. MoJ figures show that support staff are now at the lowest level since 2010.</p>
<p>On September 15, 2017 the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-figures-2017">numbers of prisoners</a> was 86,252, which is 99% of “operational capacity” (the number that can be physically housed) in a system whose “uncrowded capacity” (representing a good and decent standard of accommodation) is considerably lower.</p>
<p>The PRT data shows that nearly a quarter of the prison population are sharing cells that have been designed for one person. Nearly 6,500 fewer staff are looking after 300 more prisoners, many of whom have complex combinations of substance misuse, mental health, physical health and social needs.</p>
<p>In 2009, the <a href="http://www.mac-uk.org/wped/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Dept-of-Health-Bradley-Report-Exec-Summary.pdf">Bradley Report</a> into learning difficulties and mental health problems in the criminal justice system reported that the majority of prisoners have these complex needs. In my <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781137453884_9">own work</a>, my colleagues and I have showed that since the publication of this report very little has changed in meeting those needs.</p>
<p>However, a focus solely on prisons and staff recruitment continues to overlook a number of problems. To understand the prisons “crisis”, we must look beyond what is happening in prisons and to the wider criminal justice system.</p>
<h2>Community sentences failing</h2>
<p>It is encouraging that the current justice secretary, David Lidington, wants to see a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-40937260">decrease</a> in prison numbers. He also argues for the courts to have more confidence in the use of community sentences. However, prisons reflect the wider dynamics of the community. Currently, they reflect a whole systems failure due to the political choice of austerity and badly thought through “reorganisation”. This has disproportionately affected some of the most vulnerable people in society.</p>
<p>In this respect, the government’s reorganisation of the National Probation Service (NPS) in 2014 <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/national-audit-office-watchdog-savages-governments-disastrous-privatisation-of-probation-services-a7010496.html">has been highly criticised</a>. The service has been split into two: the NPS supervises “high-risk offenders”, with Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) supervising “low-risk offenders”. A justification for the change was to ensure that prisoners serving short sentences would be supervised for a minimum of 12 months upon release. The CRCs, made up of charities and peer mentoring schemes run by ex-offenders, were meant to bring valuable expertise to breaking the cycle of crime.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the PRT has <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Bromley%20Briefings/Summer%202017%20factfile.pdf">demonstrated</a> that the recall population (the number of people being sent back to prison) has increased by nearly a thousand since the changes were introduced. Recent inspectorate reports have been <a href="http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/cjji/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/06/Through-the-Gate-phase-2-report.pdf">scathing</a> about the performance of CRCs and the impact of schemes to help resettlement. </p>
<p>Prisons, while affected by austerity, still have the most resources in comparison to community and probation services and so when deciding how best to deal with offenders who have complex needs, prison too readily becomes the first option rather than the last.</p>
<p>These decisions are entirely due to sentencing practice rather than more crimes being committed. Criminal justice finds itself in the eye of a perfect storm in which the use of community sentences <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Bromley%20Briefings/Summer%202017%20factfile.pdf">has halved</a> since 2006 despite being more effective in reducing re-offending. When these sentences are used, too many people are recalled to prison often due to cuts in housing and support services. </p>
<p>Recruitment of good quality staff is of course essential, but it is worth remembering that there was still a prison crisis when prisons were fully staffed – precisely because these problems reflect the wider dynamics of the criminal justice system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Pycroft is affiliated with the Institute of Criminal Justice at the University of Portsmouth which receives funding from the Ministry of Justice to provide qualifying awards for trainee Probation Officers </span></em></p>An overhaul of the probation system has left the justice system foundering.Aaron Pycroft, Reader in Criminal Justice and Social Complexity, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/830692017-09-08T10:33:29Z2017-09-08T10:33:29ZHow to help offenders on probation who are at high risk of suicide<p>An <a href="http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/">estimated 800,000 people</a> die by suicide around the world each year, according to the World Health Organisation. This translates to about one person every 40 seconds, and every year on September 10 <a href="https://iasp.info/wspd2017/">World Suicide Prevention Day</a> aims to raise awareness and prevent more loss of life.</p>
<p>In the UK, there has been a particular focus on suicides of people serving time in prison. Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/26/prison-suicides-in-england-and-wales-reaches-record-high">119 people died by suicide</a> in prison in England and Wales in 2016 – a record number. </p>
<p>Yet offenders serving probation sentences often fall under the radar. These people may have been sentenced directly to a community sentence, or have spent some time in prison before being released under the supervision of probation staff. Probationers <a href="https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/publications/community-sentences-digest-2nd-edition-0">have been found</a> to be nine times more likely to die by suicide than the general population, with 14% of the total deaths of probationers in 2009 due to suicide. In 2012, the Howard League of Penal Reform released a <a href="http://howardleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Deaths-on-probation.pdf">report</a> highlighting this problem. </p>
<p>Statistics for the number of suicides by those on probation in different areas of the country are available but are not published nationally, making them less publicised. For example, between 2010 and 2013 <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0264550516677770">there were</a> 28 self-inflicted deaths by those serving probation sentences in London.</p>
<p>Probation staff supervise a range of offenders, including those deemed a high risk of re-offending and who have just been released from prison back into the community, as well as offenders deemed low to medium risk, who may have been sentenced for a crime such as a driving offence or breach of public peace. </p>
<p>Research <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673613621182">within prisons</a> shows that high-risk offenders are the most at risk of suicide. However, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/pubmed/fdx005/2967999/Exploring-suicidal-behaviours-by-probation-clients?redirectedFrom=fulltext">recent research</a> my colleagues and I published, suggests the opposite – that it is the lower-risk offenders who are most at risk. This may be because these individuals are not observed as often their counterparts in prison, who are checked and monitored by prison staff and because they have easier access to methods of suicide.</p>
<h2>Someone to listen</h2>
<p>Our research <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0264550515571396">included</a> interviews with probationers who made suicide attempts while on probation, and with staff that supervised clients who carried out suicidal behaviours or took their own life. We suggest that simple yet effective steps can be taken to support those serving probation sentences who are feeling suicidal or experiencing suicidal thoughts. </p>
<p>We found probationers often want someone to listen to them in a non-judgemental way when they are feeling suicidal. The question is how to tailor support for hard-to-reach groups such as probationers, who often find it difficult to trust others, especially those in authority.</p>
<p>But our interviews did suggest that when trust could be gained between probation staff and probationers, offenders were able to talk about their suicidal feelings and get the support they needed. We found staff who had suicide prevention training reported feeling more confident in talking to their clients about suicide. </p>
<h2>Greater support</h2>
<p>Partnerships between charities and local probation offices and hostels can also help, particularly if offenders are given information about these charities and can make contact themselves. The National Probation Service (NPS) London provides its clients with information about the Samaritans charity when probationers arrive in one of its hostels, and NPS Essex has a partnership between one of its hostels and the local Samaritans branch.</p>
<p>Our research <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/pubmed/fdx005/2967999/Exploring-suicidal-behaviours-by-probation-clients?redirectedFrom=fulltext">also identified</a> key stages of the probation process when individuals might be at an increased risk of suicide, such as if they were about to be recalled to prison because of a breach of probation conditions or had reached the end of their probation sentence. During these stages probation staff should be more vigilant of their client’s risk and consider how to explore any feelings their client might be having about their sentence. </p>
<p>Staff – <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0264550515571396">who we often found lack confidence</a> in dealing with suicidal offenders – need more consistent suicide prevention training. By talking with more confidence to probationers about their feelings, staff could point them to external sources of support that may help during the stages of their probation process when they may be at a heightened risk of suicide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay-Marie Mackenzie received funding from The Sir Halley Stewart Trust to help with research costs. She also volunteers for the Samaritans.</span></em></p>Probation staff need to gain the trust of prisoners.Jay-Marie Mackenzie, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/666602016-10-07T14:32:35Z2016-10-07T14:32:35ZTagging more offenders can’t just be quick fix for prison numbers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140860/original/image-20161007-8956-1si9wcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">24-hour surveillance people. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankle_monitor#/media/File:Bracelet_électronique.JPG">Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Electronic tagging of offenders is going to be considerably expanded in Scotland under new plans <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-37544706">announced</a> by the Scottish government, part of a wider trend towards <a href="http://28uzqb445tcn4c24864ahmel.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2016/06/EMEU-Creativity-and-effectiveness-in-EM-Long-version.pdf">more tagging</a> across much of Europe. Where this kind of monitoring is only currently used in Scotland to track convicted offenders for periods of time at home, <a href="http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Expanding-tagging-sentences-2c5a.aspx">in future</a> it will be used for suspects awaiting trial who would otherwise be remanded in custody. </p>
<p>GPS monitoring will be introduced to make it possible to monitor offenders without restricting them to the home for the first time and there are also proposals to trial tags that monitor alcohol levels in the sweat of offenders whose crimes are deemed to be linked to problems with alcohol. </p>
<p>First rolled out in Scotland in 2002, electronic tagging has been slowly expanding ever since. It <a href="http://28uzqb445tcn4c24864ahmel.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2016/06/EMEU-Creativity-effectiveness-EM-Brief_English.pdf">currently</a> accounts for some 11% of all people detained by the criminal justice system. Extending its use <a href="http://28uzqb445tcn4c24864ahmel.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2016/06/EMEU-Creativity-effectiveness-EM-Brief_English.pdf">mirrors</a> trends seen elsewhere in Europe. Many countries already use GPS monitoring, for example. England and Wales are particularly heavy users of tags, while the likes of the Netherlands and Germany use the technology to a lesser extent.</p>
<p>Extending electronic monitoring is attractive to the Scottish government for several reasons. It makes it easier to tailor punishments to the individual and allow them to maintain contact with their families and keep their employment. This is part of a <a href="http://scottishjusticematters.com/wp-content/uploads/SJM_1-2_December2013_ReframingCustodyLo-Res.pdf">wider policy agenda</a> to reduce reoffending with what are <a href="http://www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/17101-assetBasedApproachestoHealthImprovementBriefing.pdf">known as</a> “asset-based approaches”, which essentially aim to empower individuals. We see them in other areas such as public health and <a href="http://www.abcdinstitute.org/docs/What%20isAssetBasedCommunityDevelopment(1).pdf">community development</a>.</p>
<p>An equally important priority for the government is reducing Scotland’s prison population, including those people on remand. It is <a href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=14">currently</a> one of the highest in Western Europe at 142 per 100,000 (only England and Wales is slightly higher at 146 per 100,000 – albeit dwarfed by Russia’s 447 and the US’s 693). </p>
<p>Imprisonment incurs massive financial and social costs – and the Scottish government has <a href="http://www.gov.scot/About/Review/spc/About/Review/penalpolicy">long said</a> this must change. Criminal justice professionals refer to electronic tagging reducing prison numbers at the “front door” for remand prisoners; and at the “back door” for releasing prisoners sooner from prison subject to conditions and restrictions. </p>
<p>This is just one of a range of tools the Scottish government is using to address its high prison population. Others include <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/09/8223">reducing the use of</a> short prison sentences and <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Justice/policies/reducing-reoffending/community-justice">reforming</a> community justice services – both of these on the back of <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13200823.SNP_law_against_short_jail_terms__ignored__in_courtrooms/">previous</a> related <a href="http://scottishjusticematters.com/redesigning-community-justice-scotland/">attempts</a>. </p>
<h2>What could go wrong</h2>
<p>Whether more electronic tagging is merely a short-term fix for the prison population or helps reduce reoffending in the longer term depends on the context in which it is used. Simply placing individuals on a tag and restricting their liberty will not address factors underpinning offending behaviour. </p>
<p>Scotland’s last big extension to tagging <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0043/00434434.pdf">in 2006</a> did not have the desired effect. Widely perceived as a move to reduce prison overcrowding, a failure to incorporate other strategies, particularly around sentencing, meant that the number of prisoners kept rising. </p>
<p>This time it is vital that increasing the role of the companies who monitor tags – currently <a href="http://www.g4s.com">G4S</a> – complements the role of criminal justice social workers and other points of contact for offenders, rather than replacing them. These people are considerably skilled at helping offenders and suspects change their behaviour, but they are already stretched. If there’s going to be an increased pool of individuals on community sentences, these support workers need more resources. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140861/original/image-20161007-8965-1hwha6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140861/original/image-20161007-8965-1hwha6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140861/original/image-20161007-8965-1hwha6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140861/original/image-20161007-8965-1hwha6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140861/original/image-20161007-8965-1hwha6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140861/original/image-20161007-8965-1hwha6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140861/original/image-20161007-8965-1hwha6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140861/original/image-20161007-8965-1hwha6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Tagging contractor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G4S,Västberga_2009x.jpg#/media/File:G4S,Västberga_2009x.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>It also needs to be ensured that increased tagging doesn’t lead to a creeping increase in the number of people in the criminal justice system. It must not make a community sentence a more attractive option than no sentence at all, or extend a sentence beyond what would currently be imposed. This is what is known as “up-tariffing” and “net widening”. </p>
<p>As for using what has been dubbed the “sobriety tag”, this is no doubt influenced by insights from Scotland’s <a href="http://www.actiononviolence.org.uk">Violence Reduction Unit</a> into the links between crime and problematic alcohol consumption. But monitoring sobriety will clearly only help people alongside substantial support aimed at addressing this problem. This area needs considered carefully. </p>
<h2>Supervision nation</h2>
<p>Scotland is right to prioritise moving away from its shamefully high levels of imprisonment, but we shouldn’t be certain that expanding electronic monitoring will reduce the prison population on its own. </p>
<p>Directly comparable statistics are unfortunately not available, but <a href="http://28uzqb445tcn4c24864ahmel.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2016/06/EMEU-Creativity-effectiveness-EM-Brief_English.pdf">research cautions</a> us not to be too optimistic: jurisdictions with high rates of imprisonment also have high rates of electronic monitoring. Scotland has entered an era of mass supervision <a href="http://www.offendersupervision.eu/blog-post/from-mass-incarceration-to-mass-supervision">alongside</a> many other European countries. Community sentences have been growing alongside prison sentences rather than replacing them. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140863/original/image-20161007-8956-dyxvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140863/original/image-20161007-8956-dyxvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140863/original/image-20161007-8956-dyxvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140863/original/image-20161007-8956-dyxvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140863/original/image-20161007-8956-dyxvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140863/original/image-20161007-8956-dyxvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140863/original/image-20161007-8956-dyxvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140863/original/image-20161007-8956-dyxvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Eyes have it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-416365552/stock-photo-eye-of-providence-in-a-triangles-illustration-perfect-visual-illustration-for-any-disc-or-book-cover-commercial-and-advertising-board-can-be-also-suitable-for-art-project-banner-or-web.html?src=88LjH8hW14Fbu4fszwrilg-1-26">STVinMotion</a></span>
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<p>While we might argue that electronic tagging is at least less draconian than a prison sentence, such punishments fall under the radar of public concern in a way that the effects of imprisonment do not. This might make it more attractive in a political climate that supports cutting prison populations, yet we should also be wary of the increased use of any criminal sanction.</p>
<p>The results of these reforms need to be closely scrutinised in the coming years to make sure they fulfil their potential and are not simply another quick and easy fix to reduce the prison population. Electronic monitoring still restricts people’s liberty and represents an infliction of pain from the state.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katrina Morrison is a part-time learning and development researcher for the Scottish Prison Service, though the views in this piece are entirely in her academic capacity.</span></em></p>Scotland is about to greatly expand its use of tags to have more prisoners serve sentences in their homes and communities.Katrina Morrison, Lecturer in Criminology, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.