Hello Forumers, After watching the Channel 4 Dispatches last night, I felt compelled to come and share some of my thoughts on the Forum and see what other members who might've watched the programme thought. After the previous scandal involving Serco, where they were billing the Government for tags they'd supposedly fit to deceased criminals, watching the programme last night and the utter incompetence of the firm running this contract in general was truly worrying - but for me, not for many of the reasons that the "general public" as such might be worried. Don't get me wrong - I completely see that it's worrying to know that there are people convicted of murder out in the community unmonitored for months at a time - but what's concerning to me more is how this programme will be used to further restrict people on probation or subject to tagging and ultimately will likely lead to further draconian restrictions and possibly a surge in recalls for people who have "failed to comply" with their tagging requirements through no fault of their own. Public protection will always be the #1 priority for the Ministry of Justice & HMPPS - and that's understandable - however what I'd really hope to see is a real focus on holding Serco fully to account for their failings, rather than scapegoating the people on probation/community orders subject to tagging that in most cases, through no fault of their own, are being let down by Serco and having the public perception of their "risk" heightened because of a private companies' failure. Interested to hear anybody else's thoughts on the programme - please do share!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views, opinions & contributions are my own and do not represent the views of Unlock unless specifically stated.
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