The Irish Prison Service abandoned a project to electronically tag prisoners after spending around €1 million and deciding it was neither “cost effective” nor “value for money”.
An analysis of the project found that the average cost per prisoner for the tagging was just over €12,000 per inmate over the course of eighteen months.
An internal paper said when the project had first begun, it was hoped major savings could be made especially when escorting criminals for hospital visits.
However, these savings had never materialised and despite efforts to get different prisons to sign up, jails had been slow to submit applications for its use.
The Irish Prison Service had originally said they did not hold any records analysing the cost-benefit of the scheme.
However, following an appeal to the Information Commissioner, they released this redacted version of a review document on the project.