Corrections’ experience in monitoring offenders on home detention using electronic bracelets has caught the attention of the Queensland government.
A delegation including Queensland’s Minister of Police and Corrective Services Judy Spence visited recently to learn from Correction’s seven years’ of experience in this emerging field.
Probation and Offender Services Assistant General Manager Tracy Mellor says Corrections has built up considerable knowledge, and is happy to share it.
“This year we will trial newer electronic monitoring technologies to see whether they are suitable for offenders on home detention and other community-based sentences and orders,” she says.
In New Zealand, offenders on home detention are electronically monitored using an electronic bracelet which communicates with base units at home and work.
“We are notified if they have not been at home or work when they are supposed to be,” Tracy says. “Alongside this electronic monitoring, the offenders are also closely supervised by their Probation Officer.”
The Community Probation Service (CPS) will be trialling retrospective GPS tracking and voice verification technologies, aimed at helping monitor offender compliance with conditions that may require offenders to stay in or away from specific locations at given times.
Tracy says it won’t be known how well these technologies work in practice until the trials are over.
“Although there was initial interest from the Queensland delegation in the new electronic monitoring technologies we are trialling, they recognise that they will need to take it one step at a time as we have here,” says Tracy.
“Queensland has not had the experience monitoring offenders on home detention, let alone GPS tracking and voice verification technology which builds on the same technology and processes.”
Tracy says the monitoring of offenders on community-based sentences is not a simple matter and there are huge legal and logistical issues involved on top of technological limitations.
“We are conducting our trials of these new technologies keeping in mind our experience with home detention, and proceeding cautiously and trialling these new technologies in addition to current monitoring methods,” she says.
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ISSN 1178-8453