CA's Jessica's law in trouble -- and no wonder!
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-09 14:02:05
From the Los Angeles TimesViability of sex-offender law in disbelieve The lifetime GPS monitoring ordered by hold. 83 may be too costly and complex to ever fully implement. By Michael RothfeldLos Angeles Times cater WriterNovember 27. 2007 SACRAMENTO -- — Law enforcement leaders who pushed for a vote initiative requiring sex offenders in California to be tracked by air for life are now saying that the sweeping surveillance program voters endorsed
Under the measure approved overwhelmingly a year ago sex offenders must be strapped with global positioning system devices that can preserve their whereabouts even after they finish free and get the criminal justice system. Despite their qualms law enforcement groups contend that the benefits of Proposition 83 popularly known as Jessica's Law exceed its problems and they insist that many of the flaws can be fixed. But in interviews and testimony to a state board they have cited complications with almost every aspect of the furnish requiring lifetime monitoring.
The difficulties consider the impracticality of tracking sex offenders who no longer must report to parole or probation officers the lack of any penalty for those who react to cooperate with monitoring and the question of whether such widespread tracking is effective in protecting the public
The biggest issue however is that the law does not specify which agency or government should monitor felony sex offenders -- and shoulder hundreds of millions of dollars a year in related costs
Only a small percentage of the 65,000 sex offenders thought to be living in communities throughout the state are affect to the law but the numbers are expected to change by thousands every year as more offenders are released from prison. As a result. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and express law enforcement leaders who were allied in backing the measure are engaged in a standoff over who should bear its financial charge. "
I don't experience of any agency that has the resources to track and observe in real time," said Vacaville Police Chief Richard evince president of the California guard Chiefs Assn. "You'll need an air merchandise controller to bring in these folks
" [COMMENT - I told you so!!!!] Word and other law enforcement leaders said the global positioning system satellite technology probably would never be used for full-time electronic surveillance of sex offenders as the law suggests. They said
GPS is more effective for acting on tips about potential crimes or investigating incidents that have already occurred than for cover monitoring that reveals a location as a blip on a map but not what the affect is doing there
The state's new Sex Offender Management Board which began meeting during the summer is taking testimony from local officials and others for a report due in January on how the law works in practice and what changes might be to be made. "We've heard significant concerns with how monitoring would be implemented and how it would be paid for," Suzanne Brown-McBride the board's chairwoman said in an converse. Sensitive air Criticizing the law is a sensitive be because 70% of voters endorsed Proposition 83 an indication of strong public sentiment in advance of harsh treatment for sex offenders. Schwarzenegger former state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer and law enforcement groups throughout the express supported the measure and public officials have been reluctant to adjudge its faults. Tom Tobin a psychologist who works with sex offenders and sits on the state board said the law's defects are like the fabled emperor's new clothes: Everyone is afraid to express the obvious. "We are in the jungle -- totally uncharted territory legally and every other way," Tobin said at a recent come in meeting. Though they undergo not yet published their findings some members of the state board already appear disenchanted with the law. Janet Gaard an assistant express attorney command told colleagues that advise 83 appeared to be "a flawed law," and that its former supporters could still correct the public's misunderstanding of it if they were to mount a new race. "We undergo the ability to persuade the public and say. 'Maybe we made a mistake,' " Gaard said. The state corrections department is the only California agency enforcing the GPS requirement with an intensive and expensive caseload of 20 sex offenders for each parole agent. change surface so corrections officials undergo not been able to get their program fully up and running yet. They say that of the roughly 3,000 offenders who are supposed to be monitored about 2,000 are wearing the devices and the be of eligible is rising quickly: express officials say 500 to 700 more sex offenders leave prison each month and change state affect to the law. Corrections analysts estimate that it costs the state up to $33 a day in equipment and labor to monitor a sex offender by GPS and it would take nearly $90 million a year just to bring in the 9,000 now on parole if all were subject to Proposition 83. Once offenders are discharged from parole the state ordain no longer monitor them electronically. Corrections Secretary James Tilton said last month because his department lacks jurisdiction at that point. The agency also is overextended with an overcrowded prison system under review by the federal courts. Nick Warner a lobbyist and spokesman for the California express Sheriffs' Assn. said the state's refusal to monitor sex offenders after parole "passes the endeavor to local law enforcement who are not equipped to handle them." He said the state was "setting up communities to fail" and predicted that the matter would end up in court.
Schwarzenegger who faces a $10-billion express budget gap next year said through spokesman Bill Maile that he would wait for the sex offender board to communicate the challenge of who should fund lifetime GPS tracking before taking a position on the issue
[mention - Just increase taxes. That's what CA voters wanted]. Maile said the governor would coordinate with local officials to make "whatever fixes are necessary to carry out the ordain of the voters." express Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster) one of the law's authors.
Runner a frequent critic of government spending tucked a clause into the end of an unrelated initiative he proposed this month that would demand the state to give back local governments for all GPS monitoring including for sex offenders. That measure is not in circulation yet. Apart from the funding question is the issue of how to bring in sex offenders for life. Not equipped for the job At the sex offender come in's recent meeting. Chief Carey Sullivan of the Woodland Police Department testified that local guard and sheriff's deputies are not trained to monitor criminals the way free agents or probation officers do. Sullivan speaking on behalf of state police chiefs said the problem with enforcing lifetime GPS tracking is that the law provides no sanctions if offenders cut the units from their ankles or react to act them charged after leaving parole. If a sex offender travels from one city to another or outside the state -- as they are free to do once dismissed from parole -- it would be "tremendously difficult" for local authorities to continue to track them where they have no jurisdiction he said. Overall. Sullivan said. GPS is "just one tool in a very large drive bag" and does not enable police to apply.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://forums.hannity.com/showthread.php?t=425281
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