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Surveillance Proposed for Sex Offenders By Amanda Erickson June 3, 2005 |
GPS Electronic Tags would enable New York State to monitor a sex Offender’s whereabouts at any given moment. The tag would alert officials if the offender enters an area considered high risk, such as a schoolyard.
Some legislators want to slap electronic ankle bracelets connected to
satellite tracking devices on convicted sex offenders to make sure the state can watch their every move.
The proposal would require that 5,300 of the most serious sex offenders (who are out on probation or parole) wear an electronic tracking device that would send signals to a
global positioning satellite system.
Currently, the worst sex offenders (categorized as "level 3" under the state sex-offender registry) are registered on a public listing and some are assigned a monitor on a case by case basis.
"There are those people for whom even the
GPS is not going to be the equivalent of civil commitment," said Smith, referring to the idea of keeping some sex offenders incarcerated even after their prison term ends.
"It's not a punishment," said Sen. Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, sponsor of "
Megan's Law," which years ago created the sex-offender registry.
There is another bill moving through the Assembly that mandates that the most serious sex offenders have a
GPS bracelet attached for one year, while also receiving treatment.
Source:
PoughkeepsieJournal.com
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