I was fitted with a GPS tag as thousands of lags prepare to flood communities – it revealed more than I expected

“DID you speed on the way here?” I am sitting in front of Kayley Parsons, a probation officer with years of experience handling dangerous, sometimes deceitful, hardened criminals. The Sun’s Julia Atherley had a GPS tag fitted Credit: Roland Leon The tag tracked Julia’s every movement Credit: Roland Leon On a huge screen in front of me is a map of Nottinghamshire populated with small yellow dots. The blobs plot my drive from HMP Ranby, a category C prison near Retford, to the probation office next to Mansfield train station. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! The route is so precise it can see where I lingered in heavy traffic – and where I took a wrong turn before eventually finding somewhere to park. Before I left the jail I had a GPS tag fitted which would track my every movement. READ MORE ON EARLY RELEASE My ankle was measured by field monitoring officer Gemma before I was handed a charger which I was told to plug into the wall for an hour every day. Handily my tag also came with a portable charger so there could be no excuses for letting it run out of battery. On a busy day this Nottinghamshire prison can release 25 men at the end of their sentence. This week I was one of them, stepping out from the reception block before heading straight to my probation meeting. Most read in The Sun Later this year, thousands of criminals will be granted early release in a bid to free up space behind bars. As a result the number of lags serving their sentences in the community is set to skyrocket – and ankle tags will be key to that. After parking up in Mansfield town centre I walked to the probation office. I suddenly wished I had worn baggy trousers which would have covered the huge black box strapped to my ankle as I walked past shoppers and groups of kids. Julia in front of a map of Nottinghamshire populated with small yellow dots showing her journey Credit: Roland Leon Julia at HMP Ranby, a category C prison near Retford Credit: Roland Leon My probation officer, Kayley, noted that I got here sooner than she had expected so she clicks on one of the yellow dots on the A614. As well as telling her exactly what time I was there, she happily tells me it can also detect the speed I was travelling. I breathe a sigh of relief as it tells her I was going at a safe 55 mph. But a huge sea of red about halfway through my drive showed Kayley I had driven straight through my exclusion zone, which had been set as the village of Ollerton. If I was a real criminal who had just been given my first taste of freedom I would be recalled straight back to jail. Victims of abuse will be able to have a say as to where the zones are drawn up, making it less likely they could come face-to-face with their offender by accident. Comment now