‘I asked to keep my alcohol tag on after it helped end my life of crime’
Alcohol tags could be the future. Almost 3,000 Britons are walking free from prison with them strapped to their ankles, up 73 per cent on 2022, according to figures released by the Ministry of Justice last month.
It’s less big brother watching you, and more you actively taking big brother with you everywhere you go and asking it to scrutinise everything you do.
They are given to offenders where alcohol is at the heart of why they commit crimes. The notion is simple – when these people don’t drink, they don’t offend. If they do drink, one thing usually leads to another and they find themselves heading back to prison.
The tags, made by Scram Systems, were first rolled out in 2020, mainly as a punishment for alcohol-fuelled crimes. Around one in five offenders on probation are classed as having a drinking problem – so the tags have the potential to be a vital cog in the wheel of justice.
The devices are clunky, but the Ministry of Justice doesn’t mind that. In fact, the wearer being reminded that their every move is being watched is seen as a good thing, keeping them on the straight and narrow.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, told The Telegraph: “Alcohol-fuelled crime causes untold misery in our communities and can have life-long consequences if a drunken night out escalates into violence.
“These tags act as a sobering reminder to offenders who find themselves committing crimes after a few drinks – step one inch out of line and you could end up behind bars.”
Who gets them is on a case-by-case basis.
While a judge will decide a sentence, the probation service could recommend one as part of licence conditions when someone leaves prison.
The Government want to double the number of people on tags at any one time again by 2025 to protect communities from the violence and disorder often caused by alcohol.
And you can see why. Offenders were alcohol-free on over 97% of the days monitored.
A senior MoJ source said: “This isn’t fluff. We know these things work.
“Compliance with these things is extraordinary – and we often have offenders asking if they can be left on.”
They are worn around the ankle to monitor sweat, collecting a reading every 30 minutes. If alcohol has been consumed, an alert will be sent to the offenders’ probation officer. The same will happen if anyone tries to remove it or block the signal.
Criminals have tried all sorts to trick the £1,500 devices in an attempt to afford themselves a drink. Chicken skin (both cooked and raw), baloney, all manner of cured meats and even condoms have been used to add a layer of protection between the offenders’ skin and the ultra-sensitive technology. None worked.
But when the offender buys in, it has the potential to turn their lives around.
A prime example is someone like 40-year-old Danny Herbert. Growing up in Rochdale, he had his first drink aged 13. By the time he was 15, he was drinking every day.
“Growing up on a council estate with nowt,” he recalls, “I’d always had to fend for myself, so then I started to get into trouble – and all that stems from drinking.
“Whenever I used to drink on a daily basis with all my mates, we’d be going out committing crime.
“And then I started to go to prison at the age of 17, and then it progressed from there.”
In and out of prison as he entered adulthood, Danny Herbert was slapped with a four-year sentence when he was 18.
He came out and fell back into his old ways. “It was chaotic,” he admits.
“It was always just in party gaffs on the estate or was at someone’s house with the big doors always open and music blaring.
“Then just sometimes I’m not coming home for three or four days, and my family are all out looking for me going mad.”
These days-long benders would be fuelled by alcohol and drugs, and would invariably involve criminality.
“I’ve done all kinds of drugs. Ecstasy, cocaine, weed and I’ve even had spice in prison.
“Drink and drugs come hand in hand, and I can’t drink and then not take drugs.
“And I’d take the drugs to keep me up for days.”
It was one of these four-day sessions that landed him his longest stretch. In the interview room, he couldn’t remember much, but got flashbacks of what he’d done. Robbery, attempted robbery, burglaries on pubs and assault.
A week after his 22nd birthday, in July 2005, he was handed an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence. He wasn’t released again until 2016. Out for a year, then recalled for a year. Out for six months, then recalled. And so the story went.
Getting out, slipping into drink and drugs, and then ending up back inside. Until six months ago.
Danny says: “I knew it was a drink that was causing me problems.
“I spoke to the probation officer. And then I spoke to the parole board and asked for an alcohol tag.
“Don’t get me wrong. It’s been hard. There’s been ups and downs because when I tend to get stressed out I use drink and drugs – they sort all the problems.
A few weeks ago, Danny’s grandmother and cousin died. “Normally I’d be on the session and all that, and when my nan died – at the funeral they said I could have one drink.
“I still had my tag on at that point, and I thought that I might be allowed one drink, but I know where that one drink is gonna take me. I can’t just have one drink, so I chose not to drink on that day but that was part of being on the tag. I wanted to prove it to them.” And he did.
Not once in six and a half months did any alcohol pass his lips. The experts put it down to a number of things. From knowing they’re being monitored, to it being a constant physical reminder and it being a great tool not to be peer pressured into a beer.
“Want a beer, lad?”
“Can’t,” he says, pointing at his tag.
No further questions.
Danny turned such a corner, he actually asked his parole officer if he could keep it on indefinitely.
“When I was coming off it, I was a little bit nervous. I got a little bit upset,” he recalls.
“I was chatting to my missus about it and saying, ‘I’m coming off this tag next week and what’s going to happen then if I get stressed out?’.
“I was worried I was going to end up on a mad one so I asked to stay on it.”
He was freed from his tag in November last year (2023). Without it, he thinks he would probably have been back in prison.
Danny tells me: “I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for the tag giving me six months clean.”
That’s the formula. Take people away from their frantic drinking lifestyle and all its pitfalls and spirals. Make them realise how much better they can be without it. Encourage them to make it permanent.
Danny took his partner for a night out at a crazy golf venue in December and hadn’t realised they’d paid for the Christmas deal, which came with two complimentary drinks. For the first time in his life, he didn’t feel the need to leave his glass empty.
“Since I’ve been on that alcohol tag, I’ve not been interested in drinking at all,” Danny says.
“It’s helped me move away from it because normally when I get out of prison, it’s all about getting on the sesh.
“That’s what I relate getting out of prison to because I’m still a bit of a kid in the head because I’ve been away all my younger years, so that’s what I relate to getting out of prison to – having a drink.
“But this time it was different. And it was all down to that tag.
“It helped me in many ways. Not drinking alcohol has made me into a better person.
“All my family say it since I’ve stopped drinking, they’re saying that’s the Danny they know and remember.”
Danny felt he owed his girlfriend, who had stood by him during his most turbulent years. He wanted to make her proud.
“I wish I could turn back the clock.
“Whatever I’ve done, I’m sorry for all the crimes I’ve committed, but I can’t keep punishing myself for them now.
“I’ve done them and I know I have to move forward and make sure nothing like that happens again.”
