Manitoba launches pilot project and doubles capacity of existing program to monitor people on bail

The Manitoba government is taking steps to ensure people who are out on bail and considered a high risk to public safety will be more closely monitored, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen says.

"There certainly are things we can do to ensure those who are on bail have the right supervision," Goertzen said at a news conference on Monday.

The province is doubling the current capacity of an intensive probation program that provides closer supervision of offenders who are a very high risk to community safety.

The program now has space for 200 people, up from 100, who are out on bail, and can provide them with access to a full-time psychologist and an increased number of probation officers and community corrections workers.

"It involves both support, because they're individuals who might need … mental health supports and other support, but also significant check-ins to make sure that they're doing the things they're supposed to be doing and that they're court ordered to do," Goertzen said.

He anticipates roughly a dozen staff will be needed for the growing program.

University of Winnipeg criminal justice professor Michael Weinrath has researched the probation program and says the people who are monitored mainly have minor violations of their release.

He says the program should only be for truly high risk offenders, and that there should be resources to address social issues the people are facing to help them reintegrate into the community.

"These programs all cost money. And when you're deploying people and police resources for actual resources to programs like [this], you're taking them away from other programs," he said in an interview Monday.

"I hope that there's a rigorous screening process and the people who are truly high risk are the people who end up in it." 

The government will also launch a new pilot project in Winnipeg later this spring that will provide enhanced supervision and support for 25 men and 25 women facing serious charges.

Finally, the province is planning to put out a request for proposals to start a state-of-the-art electronic monitoring program to supervise roughly 100 people who are on bail, Goertzen said.

In 2022, nearly 20 per cent of people who were charged with violent crimes were out on bail, Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth said at the news conference.

When it came to homicides, 16 per cent of the people charged were on bail or on probation that year, he said.

"These are kind of staggering numbers for us. It's an indication to me that we need to make some changes to our bail systems and our probation systems," Smyth said.

Practicing Crown attorney and head of the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys Erika Dolcetti welcomes the government announcements, but says there needs to be more people like her ensuring that people who are a risk to public safety and break release conditions don't make bail.

She says programs where people are monitored after they are released from custody on conditions results in more breaches of court orders.

"What you need then are Crown attorneys in the courtrooms, in the bail rooms, opposing their release," she said in an interview on Monday.

The association filed a grievance against the province earlier this week citing a lack of support and incentives to attract attorneys to the province.

Federal action needed, Goertzen says

The province and Smyth have pushed for bail reform at the federal level.

David Lametti, the federal justice minister, has indicated bail reform will be introduced by the end of the spring session of Parliament.

Goertzen hopes that promise is delivered on.

"If we continue to see individuals who are released who shouldn't have been released, it becomes very, very difficult to have the resources to monitor a large group of individuals who shouldn't have been released to begin with," he said.

Manitoba NDP Justice Critic Matt Wiebe suggested the announcement comes after the Progressive Conservative government cut positions in community and custody corrections.

"It's all tough talk and no action — it's clear the PC approach of cutting positions and then pretending to restore them in an election year is a failure and does nothing to improve community safety in our province," he said in an emailed statement.