GPS Tracking Doesn’t Always Provide the Best Solution
by Ronen Ijadi on June 21, 2010
Does GPS tracking on convicted felons really make a difference? In the state of California, Jessica’s Law was approved, which made it mandatory for released child molesters to be under global GPS tracking 24 hours a day.
The purpose of this law was to make sure these child molesters stayed away from schools, parks, or any location where young children might be found. Unfortunately, this system must be constantly monitored by someone, and there are simply too many released convicts to have under constant surveillance.
In recent news, a man named John Gardener, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13 year old girl in 2000, was released after five years. A month later, he was sentenced to life in prison for raping and killing two teenage girls. Even though he was under constant GSP tracking, there was no one available to monitor his actions. This man was on parole, yet he was able to visit a state prison and stay out past his curfew, which are both illegal. Farther review of his GSP history revealed that Gardener at one point was within 100 yards of an elementary school, yet no one was able to pick up on this violation.
Another example of this is Salvadore Hernandez, a convicted rapist who was released after several years of imprisonment for molesting a 14 year old girl. Several months later, this man raped and murdered two more young women. The police couldn’t even use the man’s GPS whereabouts as evidence in the court case because the information was deemed “insubstantial”. They were forced to convict the man with a separate violation, while the molestation charges were thrown away.
In another case, a man named Leonard Scroggins actually managed to tear off his GSP tracker, then attempted to kidnap several eighth grade girls, threatening them with a knife. One of the eighth grade girls was able to escape from the scene, though she was badly cut in several places.
Obviously, we can see that Jessica’s Law is very flawed, and absolutely what voter did not expect to see when they approved this law. The government manufactured GPS trackers cost $1,500 each, with an extra $6 per day for operation costs. All together, that adds up to over $25,000,000 a year, which is coming straight out of taxpayers’ wallets. Is it really worth it?
Photo Courtesy of globevision via Flickr
Tagged as:
california,
devices,
GPS Tracking,
Jessica's Law
