GPS for state sex offenders gets split verdict

Does tracking system cut crime? Opinions differ
12-12-2007 Oregon:

The other day, Christopher Ervin wanted to check on a sex offender, a Seattle man who had preyed on two teens, and was homeless.

Normally, Ervin, a community corrections officer, would have made some calls and visits. But this time, he simply fired up his computer and looked for the green dot. It told him everything.

As it moved on a map, the dot told him that the offender had woken up around 5 a.m. and milled around downtown.

Most important, the dot told Ervin that the 23-year-old man was not at work, but had taken a bus to a skateboarding hangout and the Southcenter Mall.

"Part of his pattern is that he hangs out with his buddies, starts slacking off, stops working," said Ervin's supervisor, Theo Lewis.

Officers were concerned that the man, who had raped a teenage girl and had sexually groomed a troubled teenage boy, might have been hanging around young people again.

"He went to jail."

Outfitted with an ankle bracelet and a GPS tracker, the offender -- who declined to comment for the story -- is part of a booming national trend that has put thousands of sex offenders under the 24-hour, pinpoint-locating watch of satellite surveillance.

More than 40 states use the Global Positioning System to track offenders. At least 15 require some kind of lifetime monitoring. In California, voters passed a punitive law last year requiring all felony sex offenders -- about 4,000 people -- to wear a tracker for life.

"We have so much business that we can hardly keep up with manufacturing. We're exploding," said David Segal, vice president of software development for Florida-based Pro Tech Monitoring, the country's main provider of GPS correctional trackers.

In Washington, tracking was a largely unfunded, little-used program until September, when Gov. Chris Gregoire ordered immediate funding for it. She was prompted by the rape and killing of 12-year-old Tacoma girl Zina Linnik, allegedly by known sex offender Terapon Adhahn.

The program remains small, with 13 offenders as of last week. Most are watched retroactively. The 23-year-old offender is an exception, with an "active" device that sends data in real time.

As more states use GPS, some have found it to be a devil's bargain. Corrections officers praise the tool's helpfulness, but curse the immense amount of work it creates.

The technology appeases a fearful public, but is controversial on whether it truly reduces crime. Industry and corrections experts say it does, but researchers say little evidence supports that, because few studies exist.

Studies on electronic monitoring in general, which includes low-tech home detention, have not boded well, researchers say.

"Overall, we would say (electronic monitoring tools) are not effective at reducing recidivism," said Roxanne Lieb, executive director of the Washington State Institute of Public Policy.

But none of that has stopped the escalating number of offenders in the country forced to wear bracelets, estimated to be at least 10,000 to 15,000 on a given day.

With the surge has come struggle. In Florida, after lawmakers ordered trackers for sex offenders with convictions after 2005 and victims under 15, corrections officers buckled under the work.

Unlike Washington's mostly retroactive system, Florida's GPS devices send immediate alerts when an offender misses curfew, enters an exclusion zone such as a school, or commits other violations.

But with more than 1,100 offenders on trackers, officers were receiving so many alerts they had to hand over lesser breaches -- a lost signal or dead batteries -- to a private contractor.

"It does create a huge workload.... Somebody has to review all the location data and be on call," said Shawn Satterfield, chief of community-based programs for Florida's Department of Corrections.

In California, the new measure known as "Jessica's Law" has been mired in legal challenges and debates over funding and process. Of the 4,000 offenders required to carry a tracker, only roughly 2,000 have them, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Gregoire has said she wants tracking to expand to 150 sex offenders by 2009. Rep. Skip Priest, R-Federal Way, wants more.

He plans to introduce legislation to require GPS tracking of all offenders who are Level 3 or have failed to register, whose numbers he estimated at 2,800. Level 3 offenders are those with the highest risk of reoffending.

"I don't want to go to Zina Linnik's family and say there were ideas proven around the country that were available, but we failed to use," he said.

He questioned why the program is so small, given that Gregoire tapped $400,000 in emergency funds for it, and the usual daily cost per offender is only $10 for the equipment.

Anna Aylward, state Department of Corrections program administrator, said the program is small because initially only Level 3 offenders with convictions dating back to 2006 were eligible. That was a pool of 32 people.

State attorneys decided recently that convictions could date back as far as July 1, 2000, enlarging the pool to 200 offenders. Each will be scrutinized for compliance problems and risk factors, such as lack of housing.

Aylward said the program is so new that the department hasn't determined the total cost.

"We're still figuring how much time it takes to start, to hook them up," she said.

"We're really kind of shooting from the hip."

So far, the experience has been too short to assess. One offender cut off his bracelet, tossed it in some bushes and was quickly arrested. Another told his corrections officer he liked how the tracker eliminated him as a suspect in any nearby crimes.

Homeless offenders have been a challenge, with officers having to hunt down phone and electrical outlets. Most trackers need to be plugged in to recharge batteries and download data, usually once a night.

As tracking becomes more widespread, some people worry about a false sense of security, because most sexual-assault victims know the offender.

"When we think about child molesting, which is what the public is most worried about, it is taking advantage of relationships with kids -- through families, friends, neighborhoods, youth activities," said Lucy Berliner, director of the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress.

"I don't think (GPS tracking) will have any impact on that."

Law-enforcement officials are the first to agree. "It's not a panacea. It won't prevent a crime," said Don Pierce, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

"If I went into my front yard with GPS, I could be standing on the sidewalk, luring a victim to have a cookie."

But he believes GPS is useful in motivating offenders to behave and in detecting risk of recidivism.

"You start to slide into that behavior," Pierce said. "So instead of driving straight home, I drive by a school. The next day I drive slower. Then I park. If I'm not being tracked, nobody knows. But the first day I detour, it's going to know."

But he opposed any blanket tracking requirement, especially in crimes against relatives. "We would rather spend our resources counseling family members." ..more.. by VANESSA HO, P-I REPORTER