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
May 18, 2009
RI- State lawmakers debate who needs GPS tracking
August 26, 2008
TX- Ankle Monitors Make the Grade in Texas
8-26-2008 Texas:
It began in Midland as a successful way of keeping kids in school, and now its spreading across the state.
A program in Midland uses ankle montiors to track truant kids, and that has court authorities all over Texas sitting up and taking notice.
The latest city to sign up is San Antonio.
On Monday morning, the Midland County Commissioners Court re-approved the grant of about $200,000 for the tenth year in a row.
With a 95 percent success rate, their phone has been ringing from counties from all over Texas, wanting to know how they can start a similar program.
"If we're getting our kids in school, then everybody benefits," James R. Henry, Program Director of the Alternative Sentencing Program in Midland, said.
Juvenile offenders from 10-17 years of age qualify for the monitors, but so far, Midland has only used these monitors on Jr. High and High School students.
"We had kids who were not going to school, in the front door, out the back door type situations; wouldn't come home in the evenings, or even gone overnight or even two or three days," Henry said.
Depending on their sentencing, students wear the tracking device between 30-180 days.
"The student keeps the monitor on for as long as we feel like they need it. If they can show a pattern that they've gotten themselves back in order and attending as required, then we'll take the monitor off," Henry said.
They're water proof, light-weight, and virtually indestructable.
"It's an extreme step to take, but for the outcome, I think it overwhelms the actual, in tandum, what it may look like," Henry said.
The ankle monitors track where you are and where you've been, but the most surprising thing about this technology isn't the affect is has on the one who wears it, it's the affect that it has on other students.
"One monitor afffects 15-20 other students because the students see the monitor on, and they're like, 'Oh, I don't want that. What do I have to do to stay out of Judge Cobo's court?'" Henry said.
But then officials got an unexpected result.
"The parent/child relationship was an unseen success for the program, because when we put the child on the monitor, it also requires the parents to have a certain level of accountability," Henry said.
Parents have some added responsibility too. They're required to notify staff members if the child goes out of the allowed zone.
"We saw families, parents, and kids coming closer together after they've been wearing the monitor," Henry said. "And parents have been extremely receptive to the idea. They like it, they see it as something they need in order to get their kids back on track like they should."
NewsWest 9 also spoke with Judge Cobos on Monday and he tells us they can track the student's whereabouts every thirty seconds just by checking their cell phones or computers.
Now that Midland has helped San Antonio get their program underway, officials are hoping it will continue spreading around Texas and even across the U.S. ..News Source.. by Sarah Snyder
August 14, 2008
AL- Ala. to ask for extension for GPS program
8-14-2008 Alabama:
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Officials at the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles are hoping the fourth time will be the charm for a pilot program that monitors sex offenders with Global Positioning System devices.
Parole board internal affairs director Mike Feehan said Wednesday the board plans to issue a new Invitation to Bid for vendors "within days." It will be the fourth invitation since a $600,000 federal grant was awarded to the program 2 1/2 years ago.
He also said the board will file for a two-year extension for the grant, which is set to expire Nov. 30.
Vendor contracts have been awarded before but were scrapped after those with losing bids filed complaints over technical glitches in the process.
The state is looking for companies to provide the GPS devices and software as well as some help with monitoring.
An emergency service agreement was reached with Omnilink Systems last October and 21 inmates were outfitted with the devices. But the program stalled again in March when it was discovered that Omnilink wasn't registered to do business in the state.
"This time we're going to monitor every little microscopic piece of it to ensure there's not a problem," Feehan said of the agency's latest attempt to get the program running.
"I can probably guarantee you there is going to be a protest — at least one — because that's how this industry works," he said. "There's a few vendors in particular who do that every time they don't get the bid."
Inmates who were in the program during its brief implementation had committed a range of crimes, though most were sex offenders. Their GPS devices were removed when the program was halted in March, and they are being monitored in other ways, Feehan said.
The program will track a small number of inmates in Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham for about 22 months. During that time, officials will compare caseloads and see how much money is saved by supervised release instead of keeping the inmates behind bars.
Feehan said the program could be used throughout the state if it's successful.
State Rep. Marc Keahey, D-Grove Hill, is chairman of the Legislature's Contract Review Committee and said he's glad the project is back on track to keep the state from losing a valuable grant.
"It's very critical that we get the project implemented as quick as we can. It's been a long process this past six months dealing with this situation," he said.
But Keahey said he's not convinced sex offenders should be included.
"I think personally ... it's more difficult for a true sex offender to change," he said.
Feehan said the idea is to give judges another option in their parole and probation sentencing, using the program as a way to monitor people who they would not approve of releasing otherwise.
Chris Bence, chief of staff for Attorney General Troy King, said that's why King is also against using the program for sex offenders.
"It's his opinion that other less serious offenders should be released, and that frees up an equal amount of bed space," he said. ..News Source.. by DESIREE HUNTER
May 30, 2008
IN- GPS pilot project for sex offenders ends
Corrections official had hoped for more time before money ran out for program.
5-30-2008 Indiana:
SOUTH BEND — A pilot program that provides global positioning system monitoring of local sex offenders on parole has ended a month earlier than expected.
Susan Hancock, director of the St. Joseph County Community Corrections, says she had been told by Department of Correction officials that the program, which was a joint effort with the local state parole office, would end June 30 because there was no more money for it.
The end of the GPS program does not affect services provided to local sex offenders through Project Roots, a separate program administered by Community Corrections that includes money for counseling, housing and assessments.
Hancock had a plan to wind down the GPS monitoring. She outlined that plan last week at a Community Corrections Advisory Board meeting.
She planned to accept no one new into the program after this week and to collect the monitoring devices from participants by June 30.
However, on Tuesday, Hancock received an e-mail from the local parole office telling her the monitoring units needed to be collected by Thursday.
So all the local participants were contacted and turned in their GPS units Tuesday.
“What concerns me is that is 30 extra days they could have been monitored and there could have been a smoother transition,” Hancock said.
“I really was caught off-guard. No one had contacted me, and I was very frustrated,’ she added.
Douglas Garrison, a DOC spokesman, blamed the communication issues on the bureaucracy of the DOC and the need to return the GPS units to the vendor.
As it turned out, after all the units were collected in St. Joseph County, the deadline was extended from Thursday to mid-June. That did no good for the local program, Hancock said.
Those running the 15-month pilot program liked it, despite its rocky end.
Started in February 2007, a total of 57 paroled sex offenders took part in the program in St. Joseph County. The community corrections program received $7 per day to supervise an average of 20 a month. The program took in more than $50,000 through March.
Funding came from a one-time federal grant that ran out, said Garrison, noting the program was extended for a few months.
With the DOC’s already over-stretched budget, there were no state funds available to continue it, Garrison said.
“It was a nice additional tool to have,” said Douglas Huyvaert, local parole office supervisor.
Along with St. Joseph County, a similar GPS pilot program was run in Howard County, he said.
One of the major benefits of the GPS system, Huyvaert said, was that it gave the parole agent information right away whenever a parolee entered an exclusion zone.
The exclusion zones are those areas within 1,000 feet of a school, day care or park.
The parole agent could make an immediate contact with the offender and also verify if the person was just passing through the area in a vehicle, Huyvaert said.
The GPS monitoring was added on to the extra supervision that sex offenders on parole already received, Huyvaert said. Those remain in place now that the GPS program is ended.
Supervision for sex offenders includes, for the first month, weekly visits to the parole office or in the home by a specially trained parole agent.
After that, if all is going well, the in-person contacts will be at least biweekly, Huyvaert said.
Offenders determined by a court to be predators may have more supervision.
Huyvaert did not immediately have data on how many GPS notifications would have resulted in technical violations of the offenders’ parole when compared with the cases without it.
Whether the notification would result in a violation would depend on each individual’s situation, he added.
One purpose of the pilot program, according to Garrison, was to test and determine the worthiness of GPS supervision because of a law to go into effect in 2009 that would mandate GPS monitoring of certain sex offenders.
“It’s going to be required in a year,” he said, “so it’s a good idea to learn some about the capacity and costs.”
Data from the pilot project will be shared with state officials and legislators, Garrison said, to help them move forward with any changes that might be needed.
Hancock said she still is interested in seeing if there is more grant money available to restart a similar program, but so far, nothing has come to fruition.
“I wish we could have had more time” she added, still lamenting the early end of the GPS program. ..News Source.. by Marti Goodlad Heline
