RI- State lawmakers debate who needs GPS tracking

5-18-2009 Rhode Island:

More than 90 convicted sex offenders listed on Rhode Island’s public notification Web site are considered a high risk to re-offend.

Those who are now monitored using a global positioning system that tracks movements with regular updates by satellite signal? One.

State law authorizes the state Sex Offender Review Board to decide if and how to supervise high-risk offenders. But the board’s options are governed by when the crimes were committed, leaving offenders who committed similar crimes monitored by different systems.

The issue of how offenders are monitored has gotten renewed focus this legislative session as lawmakers have attempted to increase GPS monitoring for offenders who are appealing their risk classification.

Most offenders are supervised by means other than GPS — such as an ankle bracelet that verifies through a radio-frequency system that an offender stays in an authorized location, usually on home confinement, but, if the offender leaves, the GPS does not track that person. Instead, it issues an alert to authorities if the person is in violation.

Still others are watched through in-person monitoring by corrections authorities that is meant to be intensive though not constant.

But the list of high-risk offenders also includes those whose crimes predate the law, requiring no supervision if their sentences have ended.

Meanwhile, with the state’s passage of a version of the national Jessica Lunsford Act, offenders convicted on or after Jan. 1, 2007, of first-degree child molestation are required to be monitored for the rest of their lives by GPS once their sentences end.

Those on the public notification Web site listed as high risk include 30 offenders who have second-degree child molestation convictions, 18 with first-degree child molestation convictions, 20 with first-degree sexual assault convictions and 20 with second-degree sexual assault convictions. Some have more than one of those convictions.

The only high-risk offender now monitored by GPS is Richard Smith, of Providence, according to Department of Corrections spokeswoman Ellen Evans Alexander. According to the state court system Web site, Smith, 43, was convicted of second-degree child molestation in 1990 and again in 2002. His probation sentence for the second conviction expired in October.

Under his second conviction, Smith was subject to community supervision and authorities decided on GPS monitoring.

The state ranks registered sex offenders in three tiers. Level III is for those considered the highest risk of re-offense and requires public notifications. Level II also requires public notification. Level I offenders are deemed low risk and there is no public notification.

To assess risk level, the Sex Offender Board of Review looks at each case, assessing an “actuarial risk score,” degree of violence, “degree of sexual intrusion,” characteristics of their victims such as number, age, vulnerability and prior history of crime and sexual aggression.

Many of the most serious offenders are appealing in Superior Court to lower their classification and therefore not meet the public notification requirement, former state Parole Board Chairwoman Lisa S. Holley testified before the House Judiciary Committee in April. During the appeals process, offenders, even those considered Level III, are exempt from community notification, including appearing on the Web site. Holley testified that some appeals have taken up to two years.

Rep. Peter Palumbo, D-Cranston, has sponsored a bill to require sex offenders to wear GPS devices while appealing their risk level. The proposal drew objections from the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which testified in legislative committee hearings.

Palumbo’s bill and similar legislation have been tabled in committee.

Even as policymakers debate to whom GPS monitoring should apply, the state is in the midst of choosing the company that will provide the monitoring technology. Eight companies submitted bids. BI Inc., a Colorado-based company, currently supplies the GPS service to the state Corrections Department. BI is one of the bidders.

The choice may prove important as the list of those monitored by GPS is expected to grow significantly in the Jessica Lunsford Act era. ..News Source.. by Michael P. McKinney