'Tagging is good rehabilitation'

Kyle Binnington says his curfew has given him time to think

As the government attracts criticism for the number of offences committed by tagged prisoners on early release, one offender says the electronic tagging scheme is helping him take a new direction in life.

Kyle Binnington, 20, was released from Reading prison last month with a tag fitted to his right ankle.

He was serving a three year sentence for burglary and was allowed out four-and-a-half months before his release date.

He says he became determined to turn his life around while in prison and, after completing an NVQ, he applied for early release under the Home Detention Curfew scheme.

After being accepted and granted the maximum time off his detention, he was fitted with the black plastic tag and left jail on 25 September.

Overnight curfew

The strip of plastic was cut to size before being fitted round his ankle. The strip was joined by a small plastic security box which each end clipped into.

Binnington was released on the condition that he stay at his girlfriend's home in Slough, Berkshire, between 7pm and 7am each day.

A black transmitter box with a telephone attachment was plugged in at the house behind the television.

The box begins transmitting a signal between the hours of his curfew each day, and if the tag is not in range the alarm is raised.

Binnington was fitted with an electronic tag

"I have missed my curfew once so far," he said.

"That was because I was stuck in traffic. The phone on the box started ringing. You have to pick it up and automatically go through to the police.

"Then you have to explain where you were. If you move the box it is an immediate breach and you go back to prison."

Binnington, who is being monitored by the Thames Valley Probation Area, said the curfew he was under had helped him turn his life around and meant he had not been sucked back into committing crime.

"I think it is a good thing," he said.

"When you are released with no curfew you can just start going out with your mates every night and get back into your old life.

"But this has meant I can't do that and so I've had time to ease back into things without being sucked into my old life. I've had time to think about things and have not been distracted. It's good rehabilitation.

"Prisons are overcrowded. In my jail single cells had two people in them.

"People who commit crime while tagged would have done it anyway after their full sentence."

Binnington has an interview next week for a job at a local charity which helps young people find work.