Having struggled in its first attempt at bail reform, Manitoba’s NDP government is back with a not-so-new idea that it believes will make the streets safe from chronic reoffenders. But will the re-introduction of electronic ankle monitors really cut down on recidivism, or is this just more political theatre?
At first blush, it’s really hard to tell what this new initiative will do.
Under the right circumstances, very early research on electronic monitoring showed it can be effective in deterring people facing criminal charges from reoffending while on bail. That was certainly the promise made by Justice Minister Matt Wiebe when he announced the return of the monitors.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
The provincial NDP government has pledged to toughen bail policies, and the decision to re-launch Manitoba’s GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet program comes amid an ongoing political and public outcry over the bail system.
“At the end of the day, I think what we’re looking at is repeat offenders who are continuously breaching their bail conditions and those chronic reoffenders — folks who, if these crimes are left unchecked, sometimes elevate to more serious crimes,” Wiebe said this week.
The stakes are pretty high for Wiebe and the NDP government on this file. The electronic-monitoring initiative comes nearly six months after Wiebe and Premier Wab Kinew announced a bail-reform package that really did nothing to reform the current system.
In February, Wiebe unveiled a package that included new directives to Crowns on bail applications, more resources to monitor accused persons on bail and money for more police officers to track down reoffenders. Critics, including many who work within the justice system now, said Wiebe’s “reforms” were really just a repackaging of things already being done.
Moreover, nothing he announced addressed the systemic flaws in the bail system, including the application of unreasonable conditions and the number of accused who are returned to jail for technical breaches of those conditions rather than the commission of another crime.
Contrary to the political debate in this country, Canada is not releasing more people on bail.
Recent statistics from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association show that more than 70 per cent of all the individuals currently incarcerated in provincial and territorial jails are awaiting trial or other resolution of their cases. In Ontario, the situation is even worse: nearly 80 per cent of all inmates in provincial jails have not yet been convicted of a crime.
Proponents claim electronic monitoring can solve both problems: make the streets safer from repeat offenders while also reducing the number of people in jail awaiting disposition of their cases.
However, they are relying largely on research that looked at electronic monitoring in its earlier days. More recent research shows there is little evidence that either of those assertions are foregone conclusions.
A UCLA analysis of bail cases in Los Angeles County from 2015 to 2021 showed that people wearing electronic monitors were arrested at a rate higher than those who were released without monitoring devices. Electronic monitors also did not contribute to higher court-appearance rates.
“This increased reliance on (electronic monitoring) is occurring despite the fact that these programs do not have the outcomes that judges or the public may think,” the ACLU concluded.
Criminologists have long argued the No. 1 way of ensuring those on bail do not reoffend is regular, face-to-face contact between the accused person and a community corrections worker.
No province currently offers that level of interaction and surveillance, which is how some accused out on bail are allowed to engage in more criminal activity with little or no chance they’ll get caught. Until, of course, they do something so grievous that it cannot be ignored.
The biggest problem with putting too much faith in the ankle monitors is that on their own, they do not address the larger, systemic issues that undermine the bail program.
As the jail statistics show, we are locking up more people every year. In the case of those on bail, a significant number are finding their way back behind bars because of technical violations of release conditions, many of which are applied indiscriminately, with no real connection to the type of crime they’ve been accused of committing.
There are also concerns that conditions accompanying electronic monitoring are so restrictive, they do not allow accused people to go to work (if they continue to be employed) or engage in the most basic of daily errands.
The current bail system is overwhelmed, crippled by bias and undermined by a lack of resources. What we need is a total reinvention of pre-trial release to ensure that people accused of crimes can be released without posing a danger to the community, and show up for court dates. The bonus is that jail populations would be reduced.
Ankle monitors could be a tool in pursuit of all those goals, but only if they are supported by a massive investment in personnel to monitor the people wearing them and a more measured approach to bail conditions that don’t put people back behind bars for meaningless breaches.
On their own, and absent the corresponding human resources, ankle monitors are little more than shiny pennies that draw attention away from the real problems in the system.
dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com
Dan Lett
Columnist
Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan.
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