Police have backed the use of electronic ankle bracelets, despite an escape rate of 13 per cent since their introduction six years ago.
There have been 1839 defendants subject to electronic monitoring since 2006/7, with 255 reported incidents of defendants absconding.
Electronic monitoring was introduced in 2006 as a cost-effective way of reducing the number of people serving time in prison.
If approved for electronic monitoring, a defendant would be fitted with an anklet which relays a signal to a control centre.
If a person goes beyond the monitored vicinity of the unit for an unauthorised reason an alarm is raised with police.