Border enforcement officials are looking at using a voice-reporting system that can confirm a caller’s identity and track geographical location as an alternative to jailing those who breach Canada’s immigration law.

Expanded electronic supervision tools such as the use of GPS electronic monitoring will be piloted in the Greater Toronto Area, said the Canada Border Services Agency, and could come as early as April.

According to a request for proposal obtained by the Star, the border agency is seeking a contractor who can provide and maintain the electronic system, including voice reporting with “location based service and electronic monitory.”

The border agency has been under tremendous pressure for its widespread use of lengthy immigration detention — sometimes in maximum-security provincial prisons where convicted criminals are held — for migrants whose identity is in doubt, who are deemed to be a danger to the public or who may not show up for deportation, even in some cases when they are not considered dangers to the public.

“The CBSA’s ability to monitor, track and locate individuals is critical to the success of the immigration enforcement program,” the agency said in its tender issued Wednesday.

Canada’s immigration detention system has been under intense public scrutiny since 2016 after a series of deaths of detainees in immigration custody.

In the latest incident in October, Teresa Michelle Gratton, a 50-year-old American citizen awaiting removal, died after she was found in medical distress inside a Milton jail.

Since then, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale conducted nationwide consultation and announced the new “National Immigration Detention Framework” to explore alternatives to detention.

The plan includes investing $138 million to improve immigration detention infrastructure, providing better mental and medical health services at immigration holding centres, strengthening the bail system, expanding partnerships for public monitoring of detention conditions and reducing the number of detained minors.

However, this week’s tender notice provides the first glimpse into how officials might release individuals “in a manner that mitigates risk and facilitates the location and apprehension of individuals who fail to comply as required.”

In the notice, the border agency said it’s offering a two-year contract for an interactive voice response system with a voice biometric identifier and GPS locations server.

According to a recent article in IEEE Spectrum, a magazine by the New York-based Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, smartphones do a better job in monitoring offenders than ankle bracelets, and allow for positive reinforcement and incentives.

“Under house arrest, an offender was under surveillance only at home, and he or she was free to work, attend school . . . GPS changed all that. It allowed criminal-justice agencies to greatly expand the boundaries of control beyond the home, by continuously monitoring offenders wherever they went,” wrote Robert Gable.

“Both ankle monitors and smartphones have GPS functionality, and properly configured smartphones can still tether offenders electronically to their parole officer’s computer or laptop. But smartphones also have apps, which bring new opportunities.”

Border agency spokesperson Jayden Robertson said the agency is currently in discussions with the Salvation Army, the John Howard Society of Canada and the Toronto Bail Program to carry out case management and serve as guardians to ensure compliance upon an immigration detainee’s release.

A nationally available voice reporting system “will make it easier for individuals to comply with reporting conditions imposed by the (agency) and/or the Immigration and Refugee Board,” Robertson said in an email.

He said the use of GPS equipment will be leveraged through an agreement with Correctional Service Canada and the technology is expected to cost roughly $38 a day per person, including the acquisition of the tools and staffing resources.

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In 2016, 6,251 adults and 162 minors were detained by the border agency, and about a third of the adults were held in provincial jails. The average length of detention was about 20 days. It costs Ottawa $239 per day per detainee.

“All of these initiatives will help realize core objectives of the National Immigration Detention Framework and contribute to the transformation of our immigration detention system,” said Scott Bardsley, Goodale’s spokesperson.

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