Report Title:
Corrections; Global Positioning System to Monitor Offenders
Description:
Establishes a 2-year pilot program within the department of public safety to provide for the tracking and monitoring of certain domestic violence and sex offenders through the use of a global positioning system. Appropriates funds to the department to implement the program. Requires report to the legislature.
THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
1538 |
TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to corrections.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that a global positioning system is proving to be an effective risk management tool for placing high-risk and high-intervention inmates into community-based reintegration programs.
Because of their capability for full-time surveillance, a global positioning system is used in parole agencies in several states for those inmates identified as requiring a higher level of supervisory control. The consensus is that this feature is especially useful for monitoring special cases such as high profile inmates, stalkers, sex offenders, and pedophiles.
The legislature further finds that a global positioning system is an exceptional tool for managing high risk cases where prevention and knowledge of the whereabouts of a parolee are of the highest priority for maintaining public safety. Traditional electronic monitoring methods, including ankle bracelets, drive-by monitoring, and scheduled reporting, provide only partial surveillance and therefore allow for much lower levels of supervision than does a global positioning system. These traditional methods also lack the capability to detect certain violations.
The restricted zone capability of a global positioning system provides additional security for victims when the offender is placed back into the community. This capability supports the public safety mission of the Hawaii paroling authority in supervising the placement of certain high-risk and high-intervention offenders in the community, particularly domestic violence and sex offenders.
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to establish a two-year global positioning system pilot program to track and monitor sex offender and domestic abusers who are on parole, probation, or sentenced to house arrest.
SECTION 2. Global positioning system pilot program. (a) The department of public safety, in consultation with the judiciary, shall conduct a pilot program utilizing a global positioning system to track and monitor the movement and location of domestic violence and sex offenders who are on parole, probation, or sentenced to house arrest.
(b) The department shall prepare and implement a plan to test and use global positioning tracking devices to track a minimum of fifty offenders over the course of twelve months. This plan shall include the following:
(1) Criteria for selecting domestic violence and sex offenders who will be tracked, monitored, and supervised under a global positioning system; and
(2) An evaluation of the use of a global positioning system to track offenders, including a review of:
(A) The rate of recidivism of offenders tracked and monitored by a global positioning system compared to a similar population not being tracked and monitored by a global positioning system;
(B) The rate of offenders at large being tracked and monitored by a global positioning system compared to a similar population not being tracked and monitored by a global positioning system;
(C) Cost;
(D) Accuracy; and
(E) Work load changes on probation and parole officers and other department and judiciary personnel.
(c) In developing a plan to test and implement the use of global positioning system tracking devices to track and monitor domestic violence and sex offenders, the department shall:
(1) Provide for direct data integration with other department programs and the judiciary; and
(2) Consult with the following:
(A) Crime victim groups;
(B) County law enforcement agencies, particularly those that have a high number of probationers or parolees within their jurisdiction;
(C) The department of the attorney general;
(D) The judiciary; and
(E) Other states that have used global positioning system tracking devices to track high-risk offenders.
(d) The department shall report to the legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the regular session of 2004:
(1) Findings and recommendations on the continued or expanded use of global positioning system tracking devices to track certain offenders; and
(2) Any proposed implementing legislation, including amendments to electronic monitoring provisions in sections 353-10.5(d)(1), 353-63.5(c)(1), and 353G-7(a)(4)(D), Hawaii Revised Statutes.
SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2003-2004, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005, to implement the global positioning system pilot program established by this Act.
SECTION 4. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of public safety for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2003, and shall be repealed on July 1, 2005.
INTRODUCED BY: |
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