Last March, the coalition parties defeated by a vote of 54 to 53 the Ankle Monitors bill to prevent domestic violence by allowing supervision in cases with increased risks to women or children and thus preventing the need to place them in a shelter as protection from an attacking man. After the bill was defeated, opposition MKs protested with handcuffed hands, shouting “shame,” and “women are not a free-for-all.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said he wanted to add to the bill a clause requiring judges to ask for a risk assessment of the accused man, before deciding whether to place him in an ankle monitor. The opposition bill did not require a risk assessment.
Ben Gvir explained: “The proposal they wanted to pass actually established that any man could be ankle monitored, without a background check, without a determination of how dangerous he is, and without proof. It was an undemocratic bill that would have allowed anyone with a grudge to easily deny a person’s freedom.”
Now, Ben Gvir is going to submit his revamped bill to the government’s legislative committee, alongside an extensive program to combat violence within the family.
The proposed Ankle Monitor bill states that a judge can order police to attach an ankle monitor to an accused person even without conviction or even proof of intent, subject to two conditions: an assessment of how dangerous the accused, is and his or her RAP sheet (record of arrests and prosecutions), not including traffic, taxes, and planning and construction violations. The judge may also order the monitor for a person indicted for violent crime.
In addition to the bill, Minister Ben Gvir will present additional measures to combat domestic violence, including increasing the prison sentence for violating a restraining order from four to five years; establishing a mandatory prison sentence for violence within the family; and adding a new clause against “abuse of an adult family member.”
Ben Gvir also wants to make it easier for police and prosecutors to gain access to the psychiatric records of mentally challenged individuals who are accused of perpetrating domestic violence.
