It’s certain that sobriety tags will figure in the Conservative manifesto, alongside perhaps the promises of swift and certain punishment or flash incarceration made before. Whether they come to anything is of course another matter.
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Boris Johnson’s efforts to increase prison time served by serious sexual and violent offenders by way of a Statutory Instrument were stymied by the House of Lords. Before the election was called, the Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee also put paid to the other proposal to emerge from the so-called Sentencing Review—the national rollout of the Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) or Sobriety Tag. This requires an offender to abstain from alcohol for up to 120 days with compliance electronically monitored. The tag worn on the ankle takes a sample of sweat every 30 minutes which is analysed for the presence of alcohol. First piloted in London when Johnson was Mayor, both the PM and his erstwhile advisers now in No 10 are enthusiastic about it.