Market Trends of Electronic Offender Monitoring Solutions Industry
Global Positioning System Driving the Market Growth
- Global positioning systems (GPS) are increasingly used to monitor an offender’s location and notify the probation and parole officers if the offender enters an exclusion zone. According to the House of Commons, as of 2022, there were approximately 89,520 prisoners in custody in the UK, with the vast majority of these being prisoners in the jurisdiction of England and Wales at 80,660 prisoners, with a further 7,430 in Scotland, and 1,640 in Northern Ireland.
- In addition, satellites track the location of the offender’s GPS device, which is often secured on the ankle of the offender. The GPS Program allows approved and eligible non-violent inmates to be placed in a supervised reintegration program.
- Governments of various countries have been introducing multiple policies in the Market to target high-risk offenders in the region. Further, the Government of Saskatchewan, a Canadian Province, recently introduced two new policing initiatives to reduce reoffending by high-profile offenders.
- Furthermore, the Warrant Enforcement and Suppression Team (WEST) would focus on warrant enforcement in the entire province. Adopting an Electronic Monitoring Global Positioning System (EM GPS) would reduce reoffending and help offenders reintegrate into the community.
- The province invested approximately USD 3,70,000 in WEST during 2021-2022 and USD 1.6 million each subsequent fiscal year. The EM GPS initiative received approximately USD 673,000 in 2021-2022 and had an ongoing annual cost of about USD 1.3 million each subsequent year. Such initiatives by the companies in the Market are expected to support the adoption of electronic monitoring GPS systems during the forecast period.
- Further, the government of the UK announced the first-ever UK pilot program to tag perpetrators of domestic abuse with GPS tracking devices upon release from prison to protect victims of abuse better and address the behavior of offenders. Offenders who have suited a prison sentence for domestic abuse-related offenses, such as stalking, harassment, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and coercive control, will be tagged with a GPS tracking instrument as part of their release conditions.
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Europe Expected to Hold a Significant Market Share
- Europe is expected to hold a significant share of the global electronic offender monitoring solutions market. Electronic monitoring is booming in Europe. While most probation services in Western European countries are experimenting with it, probation services in many Eastern European countries are considering pilots.
- Furthermore, electronic monitoring or tagging is widely used across the United Kingdom to monitor curfews and court or prison order conditions. After being first deployed in the United States, Electronic Monitoring was brought into the United Kingdom and implemented under the Criminal Justice Act 1991.
- As per the Government of the United Kingdom, as of September 30, 2022, the total number of individuals monitored was 14,996, an increase of 12 percent from 13,371 in the previous year. Furthermore, in September 2022, the number of individuals actively monitored with a location monitoring device or GPS rose by a staggering 143 percent from the previous year, 2,161 to 5,243. The sharp increase resulted from the continued roll-out of electronic monitoring to unique offender cohorts, particularly immigration bail.
- Alcohol monitoring recently went live throughout England and Wales to support the new community sentencing option, the Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirement (AAMR). An AAMR is only used when sentencing for alcohol-related criminal behavior and imposes an overall ban on drinking alcohol for up to 4 months. Compliance with the banning is monitored electronically using an alcohol tag that continuously monitors the presence of alcohol in the subject’s sweat.
- According to the Government of the United Kingdom, as of September 30, 2022, the total number of individuals actively monitored with an electronic or alcohol monitoring device was 14,996, representing an increase of 12 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.
- The UK government recognizes that electronic monitoring is a valuable tool with flexible and wide-ranging potential and is committed to unlocking the potential of new and existing technologies in the EM space to serve and strengthen the country's criminal justice system. The government recently announced additional funding of GBP 183 million (USD 224 million) over the next three years to kickstart the EM Expansion Program and aims to increase the EM caseload from around 13,500 in the previous year to 25,000 by 2025.
- In addition, in January 2022, the minister of Justice signed a three-year contract with electronic monitoring provider Buddi Ltd. The starting date of the agreement was February 1, 2022, and consisted of the lease of 20 ankle bracelets. Further, in the United Kingdom, facial recognition smartwatches are soon expected to monitor migrants convicted of a crime. Under new plans from the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice in August 2022, foreign offenders would have to scan their faces up to five times a day using instruments equipped with the technology.
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