The United Kingdom's Ministry of Justice (MoJ) admitted that it failed to tag prisoners who were released early with monitoring devices, Sky News reported Thursday.
Out of an estimated 1,700 prisoners, officials believe the number of those released without a required tag is in the "hundreds," a source told The Guardian. (RELATED: State Judges Slammed For Releasing Hundreds Of People Accused Of Violent Crimes)
"Prisons only have a few hundred places left. If they become full, police will no longer be able to arrest people. To create space, we're changing the proportion of time some offenders spend in prison," the MoJ tweeted about an overcrowding problem.
The MoJ blamed Serco, a security company that took over the government's tagging contract, for the failure, Sky News reported.
"Tagging is an important part of our strategy to keep victims safe and cut reoffending, and there are currently record numbers of offenders wearing tags," a MoJ spokesperson said. "We are holding Serco to account to address delays in fitting some offenders with tags, and will apply financial penalties against the company if this is not resolved quickly."
"The question is, what work did HMPPS [HM Prison and Probation Service] do in advance with Serco to prepare them for the increased demand in tags, and how did Serco respond? Given Serco's previous failures to provide tagging which resulted in them being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office, why on earth were they given another contract by HMPPS?" Tania Bassett, the national officer at the probation officers' union, asked, according to The Guardian.
A MoJ spokesperson said that the government prioritized "tagging domestic-abuse offenders" and the release conditions were followed, Sky News reported. Prisons Minister James Timpson met with Serco executives Thursday to discuss the issue.
"Since we took over the electronic monitoring contract in May we have been working hard to reduce the number of people waiting to have a tag fitted. We work closely with the MoJ and the probation service to fit tags swiftly and prioritise cases based on risk profiles. Where an individual is not at home when we call to fit a tag the time taken can be longer. We prioritise making another visit so that people are tagged as soon as possible," Serco said in a statement.