The GPS device, which is strapped onto a prisoner’s legs, tracks the wearer’s movements, ensuring that the Department of Correctional Services is aware of the offender’s whereabouts at all times.
The device can also be used as a cellphone, allowing officials to contact the offenders.
Should an offender commit any violation once the bracelet is fitted and activated, alerts are immediately sent to the Correctional Services’ 24-hour control room.
Alerts are also transmitted if the device is tampered with or the receiver is not charged.
The department said the electronic monitoring of offenders will not only result in substantial savings for taxpayers, but it will also contribute to public safety.
Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said implementing the system will cost the department R3 379 per offender per month, while it costs nearly R10 000 to incarcerate an inmate.
Ndebele also hopes that the gadget will help to reduce overcrowding in the country’s correctional facilities.
Logan Maistry, Correctional Services spokesperson, explained that e-tagging is an option to support non-custodial sentencing for minor offenders, which can reduce prison populations.
Maistry said that rather than incarcerating first-time offenders, they can be sentenced to alternative forms of rehabilitation and the tracking device will ensure that they are not a threat to society and do not commit further offences by monitoring their whereabouts 24/7.
He added that minor offenders will, as a result, be able to continue working and will not become dependent on the state.
He said the judiciary is also wary of granting bail or parole to detainees and prisoners who did not have a residential address, but the constant monitoring ensures that such offenders can be traced at any time if they were released.
Ndebele said the department had implemented an 18-month e-tag pilot phase during which the device had been tested on 150 parolees and remand inmates.
