The Home Secretary has made it clear that the enhancement of public credibility in community sentences is a crucial prerequisite if the Probation Service is to successfully divert more offenders from custody. Steve Collett draws on the experience of Greater Manchester Probation Service's involvement in the tagging pilot to argue that the nature of the response to electronic monitoring could be a crucial factor both in the development of sentencer and public confidence in the Probation Service, and, by extension, in the future of the Probation Service itself. Steve Collett is an Honorary Fellow, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Liverpool University, and an Assistant Chief Probation Officer in Greater Manchester.
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