A 77-year-old environmental activist has been sent back to prison due to her electronic tag causing problems. Gaie Delap, from Montpelier in Bristol, was originally given a 20-month sentence over a Just Stop Oil demonstration that shut down the M25 in November 2022. However, she gained a home detention curfew on November 18th. Due to her deep vein thrombosis, the electronic tag was too large to fit on her wrist, leaving no other option but to return her to prison.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has said that if offenders, like Delap, cannot be monitored in the community electronically, they will be returned to jail despite it not being their fault. Many of Delap’s supporters believe this ruling to be cruel and unnecessary, stating that she poses no threat to the community.
Her situation has been raised by MP Carla Denyer, who wrote to the prisons minister Lord Timpson and the probation service, questioning why Delap must receive the “extra punishment” of being locked up, primarily over Christmas. Denyer believes that the authorizes behind the home scheme are unwilling to consider alternatives after private companies responsible for fitting electronic tags failed to find one fitting her requirement.
Under the home scheme, an offender must be under an electronically monitored curfew for at least nine hours a day. The MoJ said: “Where it is no longer possible to electronically monitor offenders in the community, through no fault of their own, they will be recalled until it is possible for them to be monitored in the community.” Ms Delap remains in Eastwood Park Prison
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