Senegalese judges now have the option of placing some defendants or convicts on electronic wristbands rather than locking them up after the government opened a monitoring facility in Dakar on Tuesday.
This long-announced judicial device will come into full effect “as soon as we have a court decision in this direction,” an official at the electronic monitoring center said.
The government presents the center, opened in the heart of the capital, as the first in West Africa. It is capable of tracking an individual under an electronic bracelet anywhere in the world to within a meter, he said.
The Minister of Justice Ismaïla Madior Fall invited the magistrates to “appropriate this new device”, the electronic bracelet, during the inauguration. They should opt for deprivation of liberty “only when it is strictly necessary,” he said.
The scope does not apply to those who have been found guilty of rape, paedophilia, or drug trafficking.
Since 2018, Senegal has discussed using the electronic bracelet in place of prison sentences. Deputies gave their approval in July 2020.
Professionals in the legal system and advocates for human rights have expressed concerns about the usage of this technology.
The reservations are related to the measure’s ability to be applied by the court system in this developing nation, the unequal access to communication channels that would enable its implementation, or the equity between those who would gain from it or not.
The potential inadequacy of the scale to Senegalese mentalities is another point of contention.
Rights activists also argue that the bracelet shouldn’t be used as a bandage for the larger issue of the excessive use of detention orders.
Human rights advocates frequently criticize the prison conditions in Senegal, including overcrowding, the almost universal use of detention orders, and the length of pretrial detention.
