Under supervision

P.E.I. government makes permanent its electronic monitoring program for offenders

A pilot project to use electronic monitoring on offenders is now a permanent feature of P.E.I.’s justice system.

Shawn Arbing, the electronic supervision provincial co-ordinator, said a review of the pilot project sought feedback from offenders, probation officers and other people involved with the program.

“One hundred per cent of all the supervising officers were in total agreement that this was an excellent program,” he said.

More than a year ago the province started a pilot project that allowed some offenders to wear electronic monitoring bracelets.

Recently, the provincial government made the program permanent with an annual budget of $200,000.

The electronic monitoring requires an offender to wear an ankle bracelet that uses GPS and cellphone signals to keep track of its location 24 hours a day.

A strap locks the device in place and an alarm sounds if an attempt is made to cut it off.

The people monitoring offenders can also communicate with them through a speaker on the ankle bracelet.

When someone is wearing one of the devices their movements are limited with areas they can’t leave or exclusion zones they aren’t allowed to enter.

Those areas are pre-determined, and deviations trigger various responses, depending on the circumstances.

The responses could include alarms sounding from the bracelet, the police being called or, in cases involving domestic abuse, the victim being notified the offender went somewhere they weren’t supposed to.

Arbing said about 60 people used the program in the last year and a half.

They include offenders in domestic abuse cases, sex offenders, violent offenders, people under house arrest and most cases of temporary absences from jail, Arbing said.

“Not always but mostly that’s what we’ve been targeting for electronic supervision.”

Arbing said the program’s objectives are to keep offenders accountable and enhance public safety, victim safety and offender outcomes.

It also supports case management and improves staff safety, Arbing said.

“Basically, we met those objectives.”

RYAN ROSS/THE GUARDIAN Shawn Arbing, provincial co-ordinator for the province’s electronic supervision program, holds a monitoring bracelet similar to the ones some offenders wear.