Editorial: Tracking sex offenders

Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner is pushing the state to consider a law that would… Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner is pushing the state to consider a law that would require all convicted sex offenders in Pennsylvania to wear GPS ankle bracelets so that their location can be monitored at all times for up to five years after they are released from prison. Backed by several officials in the legislature, the law is aimed at discouraging “noncompliant” offenders that the state cannot locate.

According to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the state has lost track of nearly 10 percent of registered sex offenders in the state – 923 of about 9,800. GPS bracelets would help locate these delinquent offenders, who have either intentionally or accidentally allowed the state to lose track of them.

Sex offenders already have to register on databases when they move, and depending on the severity of their crimes can remain on probation indefinitely and may have to check in with police at intervals ranging from monthly to annually.

Pennsylvania, however, is not the only state that has lost track of a large number of sex criminals. According to a number of reports released by individual states in early 2003, Wisconsin had lost track of about 29 percent of its 9,900 sex offenders, and California was unable to locate approximately 44 percent, or about 33,000, of its 79,350 registered offenders.

If anything, Pennsylvania is doing a good job of keeping track of sex offenders, which makes the GPS bracelets seem unnecessary. And then there is the price to taxpayers to consider as well.

GPS units in use for tracking prisoners can cost more than $300 per unit. Multiply that times Pennsylvania’s 9,800 inmates and you’ve got almost $3 million in initial expenses alone, which doesn’t include costs for monitoring equipment or staff. To defray these costs on taxpayers, most states using GPS prisoner monitoring charge people wearing the bracelets a per-day charge for operation costs, usually around $10 to $20.

But is it fair to force all sex offenders in the state to wear GPS bracelets? True, about 10 percent are missing, but that also means that around 90 percent aren’t. It’s also worth considering that not all 9,800 people are violent child molesters – this is the total number of sex offenders in the state, which includes people who committed minor offenses against other adults.

Also, the proposal makes no provision for monitoring other violent criminals who have jumped on probation but instead specifies sex offenders alone. What about burglars or people convicted of assault? The proposition is simply ridiculous and inadequate on all fronts.

Instead of spending millions of dollars to create an Orwellian monitoring system for a group of criminals that are compliant across 90 percent of the population, why not spend the money on creating better programs to teach children to recognize sexual assault or on more effective rehabilitation for the criminals?

In short, while the proposal might have public safety at heart, it’s aimed at the wrong people and uses the wrong methods to achieve that goal and, in the end, is unworkable from every viewpoint.