WI- Corrections Dept. wants offenders to help pay for GPS

If I understand this type of GPS Tracking system, -see my highlight-, it only works IF the offender TURNS IT ON? Read what the article says, am I going nuts, what state official would approve such a STUPID system. This system must be lining the pockets of someone..

12-17-2008 Wisconsin:

The state Corrections Department wants to make sex offenders help pay for the GPS tracking devices they're supposed to wear.

About 145 of the most serious offenders are being tracked now

The corrections' agency is seeking an emergency rule to charge the offenders $4 to $8 a day, which amounts to a maximum of $240 a month.

Only two people spoke about the fee at a recent hearing in Madison.

Sex offender Grover Maass says there's no way he can afford it because when employers learn about the bracelet they generally refuse to hire him.

And even if they did, Maass said he'd have to go outside every half-hour to send his GPS signal, something few employers would tolerate.

But Madison attorney and former legislator Peter Bear says he hopes GPS bracelets can be cost-effective for non-violent non-sex offenders to wear after an early release from prison.

He says it would help those people become productive members of society, at a lower cost for taxpayers.

Bear says he's working with lawmakers on a plan to use more bracelets if they're cost-effective. ..News Source.. by Gil Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio