With the summer looking set to be every bit as long and hot as last year’s, the Justice Ministry is asking MPs to approve new proposals designed to keep summer arsonists behind closed doors.
The idea stems from the fact that fire-raising is one of the crimes “with the highest rate of repeat offences”, explains Correio da Manhã.
Put more simply, the justice ministry wants to start tackling this reality ‘before it happens’.
The plan is for anyone who has been convicted of fire-raising recently but whose jail sentence was ‘suspended’ to wear an electronic tag through the summer and remain indoors – allowed out only for the purposes of work.
For the measure to be successful, changes to the Penal Code will include placing arsonists on parole, or on suspended prison sentences, on a GPS system, so that their movements can be tracked.
They will be prohibited from any area of forest or scrubland, during the summer reports CM – adding that measures also include “cognitive and behavioural support” in the form of a special programme devised to re-educate arsonists.
