Violent abusers just released from prison to be tracked by GPS bracelets in pilot program
VIOLENT abusers released from prison will be monitored by a new set of GPS tracking devices to ensure they stay away from their victims.
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- Push to fast-track family violence plan
- Police called to 18,000 domestic violence incidents in a year
- Families of domestic violence victims demand action
VIOLENT abusers released from prison will be monitored by a new set of GPS tracking devices to ensure they stay away from their victims.
The Corrections Department will soon begin real-time monitoring of 90 domestic violence offenders fitted with ankle bracelets, funded through an almost $500,000 federal grant.
Authorities will set exclusion zones for the devices so offenders cannot go near their victims, such as ex-partners or children, without setting off an electronic warning.
If they enter an exclusion zone it will be recorded, making it easier to prosecute breaches of the court orders put in place to protect their victims.
Corrections Department executive director of offender development Vanessa Swan told The Advertiser that the three-year pilot program would evaluate whether the electronic monitoring changed offenders’ behaviour.
Ms Swan said authorities would set broad exclusions zones “because if we say ‘don’t go to Marion’ we’ve just told him (the abuser) that she (the victim) is living at Marion”.
“It will be around her and her location ... or her activities, or the kids’ schools or sports games,” she said.
Ms Swan said corrections staff would take any breach “really seriously” and penalties could include returning to jail.
Family violence victims have long complained that breaches are ignored, which discourages people from bothering to report them.
Data released by the Courts Administration Authority shows the number of breaches that end in court has risen steadily since 2012, to more than 40 per week last year.
The adult children of Graziella Daillér, who was killed by her estranged partner Dion Muir in mid 2014, called at the time for perpetrators of domestic violence who breach intervention orders to be electronically monitored.
Arman Abrahimzadeh, whose mother Zahra was murdered in 2010 by her estranged husband — who was also covered by an intervention order — said it was “definitely worthwhile” spending taxpayer funds to more closely track domestic violence offenders.
“The idea behind tracking is you’re putting the responsibility and the accountability on the perpetrator, rather than the victim,” he said.
Mr Abrahimzadeh said it would also be helpful to have electronic evidence of when a person breached a condition of their order by entering an exclusion zone.
Opposition corrections spokesman Stephan Knoll welcomed the funding but warned it would be important to allocate enough staff to properly monitor the new devices.
“This program will only deliver better safety outcomes when the resources are there to enforce this new measure,” he said.
