The Mayor of London's ambition to see 'sobriety orders' imposed on certain alcohol-related offenders comes a step closer next month as four London boroughs will implement a new pilot.
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirements (AAMRs) will allow courts in the pilot boroughs to require an offender abstain from alcohol for a fixed time period (recommended to be between 90-120 days) as part of any community sentence order. If alcohol is detected by a 'transdermal tag' a prompt reappearance at the magistrate’s court and an immediate sanction should follow.
Transdermal tags are an ankle bracelet that detect whether alcohol has been consumed by taking a regular reading which detects any alcohol naturally secreted from the drinker's sweat. The tags have been used in Scotland as part of research looking at the impact on students who volunteered to stop drinking. Those that wore the tags were significantly more likely to stick to abstinence than those who were not being monitored.
Of course the question of whether the tags can reduce alcohol-related offending is yet to be answered. In fact the Home Office piloted a similar 'Sobriety Conditional Cautioning' scheme in 2012 across five areas, but only ten offenders took part. Six of the ten completed the scheme without breaching. However the Home Office report released last year stated a 'general lack of understanding of the process' was apparent in the areas taking part, and offenders were required to report for breathalyser testing rather than wear tags.
A briefing from the Mayor's Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC) states the London pilot will be 'aimed at a specific cohort of offenders; those convicted of alcohol-related offences stemming from the night time economy; repeat drink driving offenders and those convicted of alcohol-related violence offences'. It will run in four South London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Southwark and Lambeth.
The pilot was first mooted in 2010 and drew attention when Kit Malthouse spoke on a BBC radio 4 feature saying London faced a "disproportionate" problem with alcohol-related crime - a claim accepted by a fullfact.org exploration. The scheme then drew sharp criticism from the Guardian but later recieved a "cautious welcome" from Alcohol Concern, who stated that the pilot should offer sobriety testing as part of a "wider regime" of support rather than punishment. Watch this space.
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