An advocate for better safeguards in the criminal justice system for people in violent relationships is concerned that one of their key recommendations has not been adopted as government policy.
The group Act Now NL has been lobbying for people accused of intimate partner violence to be fitted with electronic devices known as ankle bracelets.
The devices would allow for law enforcement to track their whereabouts.
Spokesperson Olivia Lynch says other provinces, including PEI, have the tracking program, where the enforcement measure is introduced at the indictment stage.
Olivia Lynch (VOCM News)
Lynch says that is much more effective than waiting until a conviction has been rendered.
She told The Tim Powers Show that it is inexpensive to do the tracking – $17 or $18 a day – a far cry from the money the system would bear in the event of a mother being murdered.
“A person gets murdered, and their children then have to go into the foster care system, or the ripple effect on the community who then have to avail of the health care system for mental health causes, or…Employment Canada. These are the ripple effects when somebody is murdered by intimate partner violence, because the other partner is then taken into custody. So there’s a job loss, parental loss, so it does have high costs associated with it.”
