Juvenile judges in Antwerp can now impose ankle bracelets on young delinquents

Juvenile judges in Antwerp will soon be able to impose an ankle bracelet on young delinquents. The Flemish government has decided that. The pilot project will be rolled out across Flanders after a year if it has been positively evaluated.

In the coming months, the judges of the Antwerp youth court will be able to impose electronic monitoring on young people who commit a crime for the first time. The Flemish government gave the green light for the pilot project on Friday, at the proposal of Flemish Minister of Welfare Hilde Crevits (CD&V) and Minister of Justice and Enforcement Zuhal Demir (N-VA).

The ankle bracelet is not a punishment in itself, but it is a way to better monitor those who have been imposed conditions by the judge. Currently, there are few ways to check whether conditions – such as going to therapy or avoiding certain places – are being adhered to. Emergency workers therefore do not always know where things are likely to go wrong.

Either-or story

Young perpetrators “get a big brother, as it were, who watches that they go to school and strictly follows their conditions,” Demir explains. According to Crevits, the aim is to “help young people get their lives back on track”.

The electronic monitoring is accompanied by intensive, tailor-made guidance, also for the parents, both ministers emphasize. “The fact that we are introducing the ankle bracelet does not mean that we are abandoning offender guidance, on the contrary. We don’t see it as an either-or situation,” says Demir.

The Antwerp juvenile judges will soon be able to impose an ankle bracelet for a minimum of three and a maximum of six months. The Flemish Center for Electronic Supervision (VCET) will receive extra staff to monitor up to 80 young people for a year via a GPS tracker. The young people in question receive a tailor-made program with a timetable and specific agreements.

The juvenile judge can only impose electronic monitoring on young people between 12 and 18 years old. It is not possible for young people suspected of manslaughter, murder or domestic violence, nor for teenage pimps or key figures in drug trafficking. If the project is positively evaluated in a year’s time, it will be rolled out gradually across the other Flemish judicial districts. A budget of 1.2 million euros has been provided for the pilot project.