In 1997, Scottish legislation introduced a new community sentence, the restriction of liberty order, with electronic monitoring to encourage compliance. The effect of this order is that the offender may be required to be (or not to be) in a specified place for a specified period of time. An order restricting a person to a place can be made for a period up to 12 months, with a maximum restriction period of 12 hours in any one day. Restriction from a specified place can be for up to 24 hours a day for up to 12 months. The evaluation found that fewer orders were made than expected by the contractors who supplied the equipment, and that it was rare for orders to be completed without some breach of their requirements. Younger offenders, and those with serious criminal records, were less likely to complete orders successfully. Orders were generally imposed on young men for whom the alternative would have been a custodial sentence or another high-tariff community penalty. The orders replaced custody in about 40 percent of cases, but they would only produce a cost saving if the sentences they replaced were relatively long. Offenders and their families generally welcomed the orders, since they believed them to be alternatives to custody. The study suggests that the extension of electronic monitoring in Scotland is not a foregone conclusion as was believed. A rational, evidence-based approach to penal policy decisions remains possible since it could not be concluded that the pilot schemes had been an outstanding success. 25 references.