This Just In...

It's my understanding that the contract with the unions who work for DOC REQUIRED the hiring of the 103 additional corrections workers NOT the technology.

In this instance it appears that the Governor is playing the politics rather than the reality.

Monitoring doesn't need 103 people to look at computer screens.

Oh yeah, a couple of other points...  Have all 103 positions been hired?  How many offenders have been added to the monitoring already being done?  What's the ratio of DOC employees assigned specifically to monitor offenders to the number of offenders being monitored?

Typical Wisconsin political rhetoric!

A couple of states which have released estimates of what they spend on sex offender registering, tracking, monitoring, etc.

Virginia: $23 million

Florida: $118 million

Yet department of Justice studies show that sex offenders have among the lowest re-offense rate of any class of criminal offender (3.5 - 5%). Also that 93% of sexual assaults against minors will be committed by a family member or a person already well-known to the child (teacher, minister, caregiver, etc.), and that 96% will be committed by first-time offenders, someone who will not appear on any sex offender registry. Yet every state in the union continues to pour millions of dollars into monitoring and tracking of people who will commit but a very tiny fraction of all new sex offenses against minors. Politicians, and the media, have created an aura of hysteria around the term "sex offender", making it synonomous with "predator" and "pedophile" and "monster". The fact of the matter is that there are hundreds of thousands of people on state sex offender registries across the nation whose crimes are of a relatively minor nature, and who have never touched or harmed a child, nor would they. These laws get passed because all of these low-risk offenders, who have been lumped into the same category as the truly dangerous preedators (who represent a very small percentage of all registrants), are an easy target for politicians who want to win a few votes with a "get tough on crime" agenda. The public has already been taught to hate and fear sex offenders, regardless of what crime they committed. As the facts begin to become known, as study after study shows that laws that have been passed are based on flawed logic or outright lies, I wonder how the politicians will justify continued funding for extensive sex offender monitoring when they can't fully fund education or infrastructure improvement, or a host of other necessary and worthwhile programs.

Indeed, the state WOULD need extra workers to track Former Offenders with GPS. Allow me to explain. Every time one of those blips go off the map, the officer has to check on why the devices are failing. GPS devices are limited in a variety of ways, such as tall buildings, weather, GDOP, or simply the battery is low. A Washington State test run of GPS devices received 4000 "notices of violation," and virtually all were "FALSE ALARMS." I have a really good article on GPS at my Once Fallen website.

"Maybe if the state wouldn’t have been spending like crazy for the past several budgets we wouldn’t be forced to confront such a serious question."

No, if the state would quit wasting time and money on ineffective laws, promoted by misinformed media hounds and paranoid citizens, designed to oppress people rather than spend money on prevention and rehabilitation measures, they would not be forced to confront such a seious question.