Who is eligible for electronic bracelet monitoring?

By Alexandros Clerides

Only convicts at the Central Prisons have the right to be included in the electronic bracelet monitoring programme, namely those who have already been sentenced by the court and are serving their sentence in prisons.

Based on the relevant legislation in the cases mentioned within the articles of the law but also following a decision of the directorate of Central Prisons, a person is given the right to serve the rest of his prison sentence under the electronic tagging programme.

Today there are several convicts benefiting from this measure and many others waiting to be examined.

People who have entered the Open Prison and then the Community Employment Centre get a bracelet to stay out of prison and work, as do people who have serious medical problems and must continue their sentence under residential confinement (house arrest). People who in some cases find it necessary to continue academic programmes after obtaining a relevant permit or people who are of a certain age or will join a closed drug addiction programme are also eligible.

The person must submit a request after consultation and certain conditions of the law must be met, which include the type and size of the sentence, the time served so far, the person’s behaviour up to that time and the reason for requesting inclusion in this measure.

In addition to the above, the directorate of the Central Prisons will examine whether there is any other risk to the public, possible effects on victims or the persons with whom the convict will live and whether there is a suitable place for the prisoner to stay outside the prison.

The directorate of the Central Prisons reserves the right in any case where it considers that the person has violated any term or condition that was set in order to be able to benefit from this measure, to revoke its previous decision and request the return of the person to prison or to change any term or condition it considers for the purposes of better monitoring.

The measure of electronic monitoring is an extremely essential measure for the purposes of proper gradual reintegration for people who are in prison and serving a sentence, but perhaps even more essential, is that it is also given to remanded persons who are waiting for their cases to be heard. This is a measure which has been pending before the parliament for the last four years and is not progressing. As a result overcrowding in the remand cells located has been worsening every day.

Alexandros Clerides is a criminal lawyer at Phoebus Ch Clerides & Associates Ltd