Ford government to spend $112 million to fix Ontario’s ‘broken bail system’
Ontario: The Ontario government is investing several million dollars to improve the province’s bail system. By doing so, the government wants to ensure that they fulfil all the bail conditions granted to high-risk offenders and those with a mindset of repeating violent crimes.
On Thursday, Premier Doug Ford announced that $112 million would be invested to set up violent crime bail teams, bring in new technology, provide resources to prosecutors for complex bail hearings, as well as promote the Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement (ROPE) squad of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
“We urgently need bail reforms,” Ford said. We see every day how innocent and innocent people lose their lives at the hands of dangerous criminals. We want to ensure that dangerous criminals are kept imprisoned behind bars so that the naked dance of death can be stopped from our streets.”
$24 million will be given to police services for three years for a new Bail Compliance and Warrant Appreciation Grant to establish dedicated Bell Compliance Teams. The OPP’s rope squad will be given $48 million to set up the Bail Compliance Unit.
This will focus on those convicts who do not meet the bail conditions or abscond. At the same time, the province will invest $ 26 million to set up intensive serious violent crime bail teams.
This will help prosecutors prepare for bail hearings and establish a new bell monitoring system across Ontario through the Bail Compliance Dashboard.
