As to the objectives we were trying to achieve, we did not go into this with any lofty goal of trying to reduce recidivism. It was a pilot for us, done to test some types of equipment. We were trying to get a sense of the equipment's capacities and limitations, to see what we needed to develop in the way of practices, protocols, policies, and training. We also wanted to find out whether using this kind of technology would assist a parole officer in managing offenders.
There were two reactions found in the evaluation. One was the reaction from the parole supervision staff. They saw this as a positive tool to help them with their work. We knew that in Canada and the U.S. there had been some indications that the probation staff were spending more time monitoring the alarms than engaging offenders. But we had the monitoring done in the national monitoring centre, so the information was fed to the parole officers, who were able to balance the informational input with the management of offenders. This way we didn't have our probation staff tied up watching an alarm screen. We got very positive feedback from the staff.
As for the offenders that were surveyed, this pilot was very small. Its purpose was to test the equipment and develop practices and procedures. But the feedback from the offenders was that wearing of the bracelet did not cause them to change their behaviour, and we saw that as positive.