http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/02/blunkett_tagging_hype/
John Lettice
"Today's announcement of the Home Office's satellite tracking pilot is a classic of its genre. As is the case with so many Blair government initiatives the earth was noisily promised in the run-up, and continued to be promised by government spokesmen this morning, but the pilot itself is so spectacularly modest, so largely low-tech, that it will provide little or no useful information about the viability of the 'prison without bars' that David Blunkett will continue to dangle before our eyes through the upcoming election campaign.
So, as the nonsense flows from the Home Office over the next 12 months, just you remember that the tech tinkering cannot and will not take the Home Office's 5,000 most prolific offenders (as specified in its Strategic Plan) out of circulation by putting them into a virtual pen. Tagging and tracking is (as will become clear in the years following the next election) at best a system that can be used on a relatively small scale in conjunction with early release and rehabilitation schemes for offenders who want to be rehabilitated."
