Monitoring gaps ‘concerning,’ AG says

“Immediate and significant” improvements must be made in the monitoring of people serving sentences in the community, Nova Scotia’s auditor general says.

In a report issued Tuesday, Kim Adair said probation officers often fall short in keeping tabs on people serving sentences and the company that provides electronic monitoring services often doesn’t follow the proper response protocols despite saying in reports that it’s done so.

The performance audit examined the oversight and management of people serving community sentences from Jan. 1, 2019, to Dec. 31, 2020.

A community-based sentence allows those eligible to serve all or part of their sentence in the community, usually under the supervision of a probation officer. At a news conference Tuesday, Adair noted it costs the province about $7 per day to supervise each of the roughly 4,700 adult offenders in the community versus $300 per day for each of about 450 people in institutional custody.

AUDIT RESULTS ‘CONCERNING’

“With thousands of people serving their sentences throughout Nova Scotia communities, it’s essential they are properly monitored and held accountable for their offences while protecting public safety,” Adair said. “Our audit found public safety may be at increased risk when probation officers do not hold individuals to the conditions of their sentence or the department fails to hold its electronic supervision service provider to the terms of contract . ... Our audit findings are concerning.”

Adair found that in many cases probation officers didn’t hold the required number of meetings with people serving sentences, risk assessments were not completed properly and officers did not impose consequences when court orders were violated.

“Despite clear policy guidance, there were numerous instances where probation officers were not complying with the policies, resulting in poor supervision and lack of accountability,” the AG’S report said. “Training for probation officers, who staff the 22 adult community corrections offices across Nova Scotia from Sydney to Yarmouth, was often not completed or

not completed on time.”

GPS MONITORING GAPS

Adair also rapped the Nova Scotia Justice Department for not making sure the company that provides GPS electronic supervision services, Jemtec, is doing its job.

Jemtec, which has been paid about $250,000 in each of the last five years, has not properly responded to alerts for people under electronic supervision, the audit found.

“Electronic supervision is the highest form of monitoring and if this is not properly managed, public safety could be at risk,” Adair said.

The auditor general’s office tested a sample of 30 alerts included in daily reports submitted by Jemtec to the Justice Department.

“We identified 20 cases – two-thirds of our sample – where the service provider did not follow the response protocol despite indicating they had done so,” the AG’S report said.

“In most of the cases, the service provider failed to contact the ISCBS (person being monitored) or probation officer when the alert was received. We also found three instances where the police should have been, but were not, contacted. In each of these cases, the ISCBS was not home as prescribed by court order, and the service provider failed to contact the police despite the requirement in the response protocol.”

The auditor general report said this review was necessary because the Justice Department does not adequately verify whether Jemtec’s assessments are accurate.

“While we would not expect the Department of Justice to review every alert, proper oversight should include a system to determine whether information from the service provider is correct and that it is meeting its responsibilities.”

The Chronicle Herald has contacted Jemtec, whose board members appear to be based in Ontario, for comment.

“Jemtec’s solutions have been used across Canadian communities on more than 50,000 individuals,” the company says on its website. “We’re proud of our commitment to our customers, our relationships with our suppliers and our networks across Justice, Law Enforcement and Public Safety.”

The audit makes 10 recommendations, which include auditing Jemtec to make sure it’s fulfilling the terms of its electronic monitoring contract and improving training for probation officers and other corrections staff such as supervisors.

‘IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS’

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Justice Minister Brad Johns said the department immediately contacted Jemtec after receiving Adair’s report “and they have updated their quality assurance processes.”

Johns listed steps that are either underway or in place: An auditing process for electronic monitoring to ensure compliance with policy and documentation requirements.

A new file review process for senior probation officers was implemented in the fall of 2021.

A new orientation - also known as on-boarding process is being developed for new community corrections staff

“The auditor general and her team have made important recommendations for improvement,” Johns said. “We accept all the recommendations and will continue working to fully implement those within the target dates.”

He said corrections service staff do challenging work and he thanked them for their dedication.

“We recognize that we need to improve our processes for documenting case management decisions and providing oversight to service providers.”

FILE Auditor General Kim Adair.