Inmate GPS bill

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- A bill waiting for final action in the Oklahoma Senate could free up prison beds. <br><br>Satellite technology could be used to monitor nonviolent inmates now assigned to halfway

Sunday, April 25th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- A bill waiting for final action in the Oklahoma Senate could free up prison beds.

Satellite technology could be used to monitor nonviolent inmates now assigned to halfway houses.

Senator Dick Wilkerson says the bill could clear out as many as 900 beds and save (m) millions in prison costs.

The bill calls for putting Global Positioning System devices on inmates' ankles.

Wilkerson says the system would let officials track inmates' moves every second. It would even alert prison officials if an alcohol offender went into a bar or somewhere else that served alcohol.

The monitoring program would cost about four and a-half dollars to seven and a-half dollars a day, compared with 32 dollars a day to keep an inmate in a halfway house.