Starting in October, serious sexual and violent offenders released from prison will face strict geographic bounds under a new government scheme. Justice Secretary Alex Norris announced that GPS technology will track individuals within areas just a few miles wide, with victims given a direct say in setting these boundaries.
GPS Tracking and Victim-Informed Boundaries
The government’s new restriction zones scheme is designed to give victims greater freedom and further reduce the possibility of unwanted contact after an offender leaves custody on probation. The intention to introduce these restriction zones for violent offenders leaving prison was first announced by the government last year. This approach goes beyond the current practice of imposing exclusion zones
which ban offenders from specific locations such as a victim’s home or place of work.
Probation officers will be able to limit where serious offenders can go for as long as it is deemed necessary, with reviews taking place at least every three months. Those who breach their new boundaries could be recalled to prison. The new scheme will specify confined areas for offenders in plans tailored to them and developed in consultation with victims, ensuring that released individuals can still access vital appointments and services that help to reduce their chances of reoffending.
Probation officers will monitor offenders using GPS technology around the clock so that those who step outside the boundaries can be quickly identified and face being sent back to prison,
Norris said.
Support and Caution From Advocacy Groups
Advocacy organizations have welcomed the policy shift. Amy Glover, Director of Domestic Abuse Services at Advance, a charity supporting women and girls who have experienced domestic abuse, praised the change in focus.
Glover noted that domestic abuse disrupts, controls, and restricts women’s lives in every way, including where they feel safe to go.
All too often the onus and burden is placed on the victim to keep herself away from her abuser,
Glover stated. She is the one who has to leave her home, her friends and family, her community.
Glover added that restriction zones aim to flip that onus onto the abuser so that the survivor isn’t the one whose movements are limited.
However, Glover also called for reform to the criminal justice system, saying many survivors of abuse chose not to pursue a criminal conviction, and for those that do only 5% reach conviction.
A domestic abuse survivor named only as Kristina called the restriction zones a fantastic concept
but noted that a perpetrator had continuously breached her indefinite restraining order without consequence.
She added that the biggest challenge would be to gain victims' confidence in authorities to follow through their promises of protection.
Early Release Backlash and Political Pressures
The announcement of the restriction zone scheme’s start date comes after a change to the government’s early release scheme following a backlash. The early release programme was designed to avoid the collapse of the crisis-hit prison system and to ease overcrowding in jails, with Labour’s scheme starting in September 2024. Prime Minister Andy Burnham is due to present the outcome of his review into the early prisoner release scheme when Parliament returns from summer recess on September 1, and Norris is expected to come up with proposals to further restrict the early release of some prisoners when Parliament resumes next month.
Mr Burnham paused plans for further releases initially due to come in September and pushed them back to October. On 4 August, the policy was updated so people sentenced for rape, serious child sex offences and grooming would not be eligible for early release. The Prime Minister’s decision to pause the early release scheme came after the plans faced fury for allowing certain prisoners to be let out earlier in their sentences. In one case that gained widespread attention, the family of killed police officer Andrew Harper hit out at the fact that two of his killers were being considered for early release, though a rule change could keep PC Andrew Harper’s killers behind bars. Meanwhile, the Conservatives say that the best thing Labour could do to protect victims is to bring forward emergency legislation which would stop the early release of thousands of criminals.
