Satellite tracking technology, a staple of weather forecasting and military operations for decades, is the latest tool California can use to ease its overburdened parole and probation system under legislation signed last week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The bill, written by Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, clears the way for the state and its counties to continuously monitor the location of people on probation or parole by using global positioning system (GPS) devices.
Although expensive -- the cost runs close to $9 a day for each person tracked -- widespread use of the GPS system could dramatically reduce repeat criminal offenses and in turn save the state as much as $1 billion a year. Schwarzenegger signed the measure along with 28 other public safety bills. The governor also embraced legislation that extends the statute of limitations for reporting a sex crime and blocks sex offenders from receiving drugs for erectile dysfunction through Medi-Cal.
California counties have shied away from GPS monitoring without clear legal authority to employ it. But with Speier's measure now law, probation officials in Santa Clara, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties are ready to consider the option.
California has 115,000 parolees and 250,000 on probation, according to the state Department of Corrections. A report done by the Little Hoover Commission in 2003 said although nearly 42 percent of parolees successfully complete parole nationally, only 25 percent manage to stay out of trouble in California.
The state launched a $5.4 million pilot program over the summer to track sex offenders via satellite. Currently, 80 parolees in San Diego and Riverside counties are being monitored, and that number will increase to 500 under the program, said Todd Slosek, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections. Parole experts at the University of California-Irvine, are evaluating the program.
Many county officials are taking a wait-and-see approach, said Lionel Chatman, Contra Costa County's chief probation officer. The county has electronic home monitoring for some minors on probation but does not currently use any GPS technology.
San Mateo County officials said they are pleased with the success of a month-old program to electronically monitor 30 minors at their homes. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice fought the bill. The attorneys association said GPS needs more study because it raises ethical and privacy issues.
The expenses of housing an inmate at a state prison, about $90 a day, far exceeds the cost of GPS monitoring.