Whoa!

Here are two names I never thought I'd see together. Our former Lt. Governor and Senator Jarret Barrios decided to write an opinion piece in the Boston Globe about "Technology Against Violence." Skipping any snarkiness about that pairing, I'm going to go right to the meat of their argument.

Here's the gist of what they see as the problem:

In answering domesic violence calls, police departments routinely supply information on battered women's shelters, along with advice on how women can seek protective orders. But why tell a woman how to leave if you are helping her obtain a restraining order that is supposed to protect her? Expecting the victim to leave instead of asking why the justice system cannot restrain the batterer from reassaulting illustrates how ingrained it has become to expect danger as a matter of course when victims seek to end abusive relationships.

Currently, many battered partners leave -- their homes, families, or jobs. Battered women's shelters must turn away thousands of women every year. Twenty-three percent of women and children in homeless shelters report that they are directly fleeing domestic violence. Instead of asking why a woman doesn't leave the violent relationship, we need to be asking how can we help these families stay -- to stay housed, in their jobs, with their kids.

Here's their remedy:

With the help of Diane Rosenfeld of Harvard Law School, we looked at how to improve the criminal justice system's response to domestic violence. On the last day of the 2005-2006 legislative session, a bill we filed was signed into law that will help remedy the loss of a victim's safety.

Under the new law, an offender who violates a domestic violence order of protection can be required by a judge to wear a device that provides Global Positioning System monitoring. The GPS helps enforce the restraining order by preventing the batterer from entering "liberty zones," such as the battered partner's domicile and place of work, their children's schools, and the residences of extended family members. Probation agents will monitor offenders to ensure that they do not breach these zones. If they do, a record of a restraining order violation will be made, thus making stalking and further violent attacks more difficult. Further, police and the victim are automatically phoned if the offender breaches the battered partner's liberty zone, thus minimizing the victim's fears of an unexpected confrontation with the batterer.

Seems like a great idea to me, at least in cases where there has been either breaches of agreements in the past or violent history. Hopefully enough law enforcement officers and others will know about it so people who need this protection can make good use of it.