�����The Home Curfew Detention (HDC), which is meant to give short term offenders early release from prison is being openly abused by prison governors.

�����According to the Prison Service analysis, most prison governors are sceptical about the scheme, "Many see nothing in it for them except extra risk and extra work," it says. "As one of them put it: 'The present system is working fine for me: I've still got my job.'

�����Decisions on eligibility are taken by prison governors, who must make a risk assessment taking account of the prisoners likelihood of re-offending. But most are sceptical about the scheme,

��������Since Jan 1999, a total of 43,000 inmates, eligible for Home Curfew HDC have been released and tagged. To qualify for tagging, prisoners must be on short-term sentences of between three months and four years and not have convictions for violence or sexual offences.

�����The failure rate for the scheme has been relatively low at less than five per cent, though this still means nearly 2,000 participants have been recalled to prison, mostly for breaching the curfew rather than committing new crimes.

�����As of last Friday, the prison population is well over the normal capacity and has risen above 69,000 - close to the operational limit of 71,000. Just 10 years ago, there were about 44,000 prisoners. Numbers have risen by almost 8,000 since Labour took office.

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By Ian Burrell Home Affairs Correspondent, The Independent, 18 February 2002

�����Tens of thousands of prisoners eligible for early release from jail with electronic tags are being kept locked up because prison staff do not agree with the government scheme, leaked documents reveal.

�����A memo to the director general of the Prison Service, Martin Narey, reveals that out of 53,813 prisoners eligible for the home detention curfew scheme (HDC) only 13,571 (25 per cent) were allowed home last year. At some jails the percentage is less than 5 per cent.

�����The memo, written by a senior Prison Service official, says that "fewer prisoners have been released on HDC than anticipated. Further, statistics show that there has been a downward trend in the number of prisoners being released". It states that a "sizeable minority" of staff involved in running the scheme "objected in principle to early releases".

�����Some jails "have developed local policies which eliminate whole swaths of eligible prisoners". Inmates serving sentences for driving while disqualified were automatically refused on the grounds they would "immediately reoffend". Prisoners who failed drug tests in jail were deemed "bound" to take drugs if released.

�����The findings will worry the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, who is depending on the HDC programme to stop overcrowding running out of control. The jail population is at a record 68,500 and rising every month. Mr Blunkett said earlier this month he was extending the scheme's eligibility to cover prisoners with three months, as opposed to two, left of sentences.

But the leaked memo said HDC was regarded with "much scepticism" by governors and probation officers. It also reveals wide variation between prisons in use of the tagging scheme. At Dartmoor, where inmates were treated in conditions "more appropriate for dangerous animals" according to a report by the chief inspector of prisons, only 11 out of 264 eligible prisoners (4 per cent) were allowed home. At Parc prison, in south Wales, the figure was 16 out of 480 (3 per cent).

The Prison Service memo revealed that staff in charge of tagging programmes were terrified of mistakes. "There is genuine 'anxiety' about getting it wrong and the consequences which might follow, including bad local publicity," it noted.

Mr Narey wrote to all prisons on 8 February to complain that his attempts to warn Mr Blunkett that the prison system was full were undermined by under-use of HDC.

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