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TORONTO – The President of the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union is calling on Corrections Minister Rick Bartolucci stop
planned changes to Ontario’s offender electronic monitoring program that could
impact public safety.
OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas says
it’s ludicrous that the Ministry plans to cease home visits to offenders
entering the program.
Electronic monitoring, more commonly known as
“ankle bracelets,” allows sentenced offenders to continue working and to attend
medical appointments while being monitored outside the home and after curfew
times.
Current practice is to have an electronic
supervision officer visit the residence of the offender before beginning the
program. As of Nov. 30, 2008, the Ministry wants to eliminate this home visit
and have officers conduct the interview by phone.
Bob Gordon, an Electronic Supervision
Resource Officer, says the elimination of the home visit defeats many of the
program’s safeguards.
“There are numerous reasons we must visit the
residence,” Gordon said. “We have to verify that the phone lines are compatible
with the system, we must ensure that the residence is suitable, that other
residents in the dwelling are aware of situation…the list is endless.”
Gordon said that replacing these visits with
a simple phone interview is completely inadequate. “We could be talking to
someone on a cell phone that’s living in a grow-op. We wouldn’t even know if we
had the right person on the phone.”
OPSEU President Thomas said that the
integrity of the program must not be compromised. “The alternative to electronic
monitoring is jail,” Thomas said. “The safety of the public must be the first
and foremost concern. This move by the Ministry weakens the system…and
communities will ultimately pay the price.”
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