Although many of the Smith government’s plans being outlined these days are either good or bad depending on who you ask, a proposal to create a provincial ankle monitoring program for Alberta criminals is right on the mark.
With many violent repeat offenders assaulting individuals and families across the province these days, is it any surprise that more and more people are feeling less and less safe and secure in their home communities?
And of course that same repeat offender population also continues to target area homes, businesses, farms and ranches, and industrial operations on a day-to-day basis, stealing property and causing widespread damage and financial loss.
To say more needs to be done to protect the community-at-large from repeat offenders and to make more of those criminals pay for their misdeeds is an understatement.
The proposed ankle bracelet electronic monitoring program would see repeat offenders required to wear global position system tracking devices on their person.
The device would be monitored 24 hours a day by a centralized monitoring unit within Alberta Correctional Services.
“We are taking an important step towards combating rising crime, creating safer streets and neighbourhoods and protecting our communities,” said Mike Ellis, minister of Alberta Public Safety and Emergency Service.
“Ankle bracelet electronic monitoring is another tool in the toolbox for courts to hold high-risk and repeat offenders accountable for their actions while out on bail.”
Once operational, the ankle monitoring system would provide a greatly increased level of supervision of offenders as part of his or her community supervision, he said.
Offenders will, of course, object to having their movements and activities monitored with this high-tech system. Yet should such protests carry any weight at all with a public well and truly fed up with criminals running wild?
The Alberta government allocated $5.25 million in funding for the ankle bracelet monitoring program in the 2023-24 budget. Of that funding, $2.8 million will cover implementation costs for this 2024-25 fiscal year, with the full funding of $5.25 million to begin in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Perhaps offenders fitted with the devices should be made to foot that entire cost of running this program?
Dan Singleton is an editor with the Albertan.
