A practical challenge to GPS monitoring
As detailed in posts linked below, I think GPS tracking has lots of promise as a possible alternative to excessive imprisonment. However, as this short local news story details, there are challenges to broadening the use of this form of technocorrections:
Sentencing people to wear ankle bracelets is taking its toll on Suffolk County’s probation department. It has run out of officers to monitor the criminals and defendants. Suffolk’s Probation director John Desmond told his staff to stop recommending GPS devices as a condition of probation because the department does not have enough officers to supervise more accused and offenders.
Currently, 10 probation officers working in three shifts track the whereabouts of 50 criminals and defendants around the clock to ensure they don’t go where they’re not supposed to. Increasingly, lawmakers are turning to technology like GPS as an alternate means to incarceration for some offenders, including drunk drivers, some sex predators, and violators of orders of protection. It’s cheaper to track people using GPS devices than it is to send them to jail.
Some related posts on GPS tracking: