Letter: Tag of honour for tearaways

Sir: The Government's plan to place young offenders under electronic monitoring is one of the worst ideas yet to tackle youth crime. Tagging is a negative and stigmatising measure which is particularly unsuitable for juveniles.

These young people will have to attend school with a tag attached to their wrist or ankle branding them an offender. Some children will undoubtedly boast about their tag and adopt a "hard" image to live up to it. This is exactly the opposite of the attitudes towards which we are trying to steer juvenile offenders.

The resources should be devoted to strengthening constructive options such as bail support programmes and intensive supervision schemes.

PAUL CAVADINO

Chair, Penal Affairs Consortium

London SW9