Aleida Oberholzer says she just wants fairness for her client.

The Saskatoon defence lawyer is representing one of two teens charged with second-degree murder in the March 12 shooting death of Mark Enwaya.

Both teens were in youth court last week, arranging bail hearings. Oberholzer had tried to order a report that would assess the possibility of an electronic bracelet for her 15-year-old client.

"I phoned the bail verification and supervision people that set the electronic monitoring up and canvas the candidates to see if they're good candidates for the program," she said in an interview.

"They indicated that the electronic monitoring would be available if my client had a residence in Regina, but not available anywhere else."

She doesn't think that accused in Regina should be treated differently than those elsewhere in the province.

"It strikes me as very unfair, and arbitrary, that my client doesn't have the same opportunity as youths in Regina," she said.

Andrew Mason questions the fairness of the government policy. (CBC)

Andrew Mason is president of the Saskatoon Criminal Defence Lawyers Association. He shares Oberholzer's concerns about fairness.

Mason said that having electronic monitoring as an option is often the difference between an accused making bail or staying in jail.

"If the judge has no option but to put the accused in jail because the availability of electronic monitoring is being restricted by the government deliberately to one group of people and not others, [it] raises certainly a constitutional equality issue," he said.

"It puts the government, the prosecution, in a rather awkward position of trying to explain why a service that is available that enables accused in Regina to be released on bail more easily than in Saskatoon. Pretty hard to explain that."

The province said it's been offering electronic monitoring for youth in Regina since 2002.

"It began as part of the Auto Theft Strategy and was intended to monitor curfew because many of the offences were occurring at later hours in the evening," said Justice spokesperson Jennifer Graham in an email.

"There have been occasions where the Court has used electronic monitoring for youth for other offences. However, the primary goal has always been to use it as part of the Auto Theft Strategy."

Graham said the province is not ready to expand it to the rest of the province.

"The program has not been expanded to other areas of the province because electronic monitoring of youth presents different issues and challenges compared to monitoring adults, including that parents or guardians often control the coming and going of the youth, which makes release planning complicated."