Probation Service issues e-bracelets to monitor convicts outside prison

The Probation Service has begun putting electronic bracelets into operation for convicts allowed to serve sentences outside of prison. A defect in the monitoring devices delivered in an earlier tender had scuppered a previous initiative.

Despite two general amnesties and efforts over the past decade to promote alternative sentences, such as house arrest and work-release programmes, the Czech penal system remains at overcapacity.

In 2016 there were 203 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants in the country, about 25 more than in other post-communist EU countries, at twice as many as in Austria and Germany, where alternative sentencing is common.

Author: Brian Kenety