Electronic monitoring for people on parole and under community-based orders will be introduced in the ACT through a staged process, the territory government has announced.
But the government will first have to pass legislation and need to go out to market to find electronic monitoring systems.
The government said monitoring would begin with people on intensive corrections orders, parole, limited bail and those on leave permits.
In the second stage it would be rolled out for people on home detention, early release, post-release supervision, expanded bail and intensive monitoring for domestic and family violence perpetrators.
Active electronic tracking of offenders, usually via an non-removable ankle bracelet, has been used by justice systems around the world for decades.
It is used to ensure offenders do not break curfews or court-issued directions.
The ACT government is undertaking a feasibility study into electronic monitoring. The territory has assessed the technology twice before and is the only jurisdiction in Australia that does not use it.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the feasibility study indicated it had the potential to reduce physical reporting requirements for offenders, and incarceration rates.
A parliamentary inquiry, published this week, urged the government to use electronic monitoring to monitor alleged and proved domestic violence offenders.
Mr Barr said the government would work with domestic and family violence stakeholders on this as there was risk in this area that needed to be managed.
"The first stage will inherently include domestic and family violence perpetrators, but we recognise that assessing and managing risk in this area is complex and we will work with the DFV sector to ensure we address concerns about monitoring perpetrators in the community before electronic monitoring commences," he said.
"Then as we build our capacity and confidence in the system we will look at more intensive domestic and family violence monitoring for higher risk offenders as part of stage two."
The ACT has assessed the technology twice before; the first time back in 2001 as a three-year program applied to offenders who received a sentence of 18 months or less.
But the program was quietly dropped in 2004. ACT Corrections again explored the feasibility of electronic tagging in 2016-17 but it was dropped "due to a number of limiting factors".
Mr Barr finally committed the ACT to the program in May following a national cabinet meeting on gender-based violence.
Former ACT chief police officer and the longest-serving top cop in the territory Neil Gaughan had been a strong advocate of the technology.
Police Minister Mick Gentleman said electronic monitoring would be an important tool for police.
"This will not only be a valuable tool in achieving our goal of reducing recidivism, but also support the reintegration of offenders back into the community," he said.
Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury adequate funding, proactive wraparound support and time responses to breaches would be important to ensuring the territory's program was effective.
"While electronic monitoring is not a panacea for preventing a person committing a crime, it can be a useful tool to identify and respond to non-compliance of location-based restrictions for people on pre and post-sentence community-based orders such as bail, parole and intensive corrections orders where appropriate," he said.
