NCJ Number
197265
Journal
Journal of Offender Monitoring Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer/Fall 2002 Pages: 15,21-22,26
Date Published
2002
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the use of Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) to track offenders who are under community correction supervision.
Abstract
The author begins by explaining the background of the GPS system. Built in the 1970’s by the United States Department of Defense, the GPS system has only recently been used to track the movements of criminal offenders. During the late 1990’s, Florida began using the GPS system to keep track of sex offenders who were under community correction supervision. The technology allowed them to track the movements of the offenders in almost real time. Thus, if an offender was not allowed within a certain number of feet of a school, the GPS system would alert both the offender and the monitoring agency when the offender was nearing a school. Other States are now exploring the use of this technology in order to better track offenders. The author contacted a number of States in May 2001 to determine if they were currently using the GPS system or if they were considering implementing the system. The results are presented for each State. Generally, the author found that there has been little movement in terms of implementing a GPS system for monitoring offenders. Those States that were not using this technology a year ago are still not using it today, nor are they planning on implementing it in the near future. Most respondents claimed the reason for not pursuing GPS monitoring was due to budgetary constraints. The author also presents the key findings of the initial evaluation of the GPS monitoring program in Florida. Generally, sex offenders and domestic violence offenders were targeted for initial use of the GPS system. The results suggest that GPS is a successful monitoring system that makes it easier to effectively monitor offenders while reducing the amount of money being expended for monitoring purposes. References