A month after its introduction of electronic bracelets for prisoners in Poland, proves expensive and inefficient, say critics.
The new system, introduced on 1 September 2009, is supposed to cut costs of imprisonment. Thanks to electronic bracelets, convicts, instead of serving a sentence in prison, are able to stay at large but all their movements are tracked.
So far 23 million zloty (5.5 million euro) has been spent on the new system and only two prisoners have been equipped with electronic bracelets.
Law Professor Stefan Lelental, however claims that the new penal system is a waste of money. In his opinion, it would be wiser to spend 200 million zloty (47.6 million euro) on five modern prisons for the most dangerous convicts than on electronic bracelets.
The Justice Ministry assures that the new penal system will be cost-effective only in 2014 when several thousand prisoners are let out of prisons and monitored with the use of bracelets. According to the ministry, monthly costs for monitoring a prisoner with the bracelet system amount to about 100 zloty (24 euro) while holding a prisoner in a cell costs about a lot more – about 2,300 zloty (561 euro). (mg)
Source: Rzeczpospolita