Satellite technology could reduce Oklahoma prison beds

Sunday, April 25th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A bill awaiting final action in the Oklahoma Senate could free up prison beds by using satellite technology to monitor nonviolent inmates now assigned to halfway houses.

"It could save us as much as 900 beds, depending on how it is utilized and things of that nature," said Sen. Dick Wilkerson, D-Atwood, principal author.

Sponsors say the legislation has the potential to save millions of dollars in prison costs, while improving security in cities and towns where halfway houses are located.

It calls for placing devices on inmates that utilize the government-developed Global Positioning System, a network of two dozen satellites that can provide pinpoint tracking in a wide range of applications.

"This is a far cry from the old electronic monitoring," Wilkerson said. "This is global positioning where we can tell every second exactly where someone is."

In effect, it throws up "invisible bars," says Vickie Rankin, lobbyist for Pro-Tech, a Florida-based company which has contracts using the technology in several states.

Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, said the state once had an electronic monitoring program for some inmates using old technology, but it was repealed. Other early release programs also were discontinued when the state passed a truth-in-sentencing law in the mid-1990s.

Massie said there are about 700 inmates in halfway houses or other transitional living facilities who could qualify for the program, but there are no plans to implement it on such a scale now.

"We're going to take baby steps with this," said Wilkerson, who predicts it will become a popular program with law enforcement and law-and-order legislators once they see its practical effect.

"I think it could be a heck of a deterrent to thieves, for instance," said Wilkerson, a former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation official. "It will be a terrific tool for law enforcement. We're going to know where those people are every second."

The cost of the monitoring program -- about $4.50 to $7.50 a day -- is attractive to legislators, Rankin said.

That compares with about $32 it costs daily to keep an inmate in a halfway house and about $43 a day to keep offenders in prison.

The bill passed the House 70-25 last week as an emergency measure. If the Senate accepts House amendments, it will go to the governor for his signature.

Rep. David Braddock, D-Altus, House author, said GPS had been a success in several states and in Tulsa County closer to home.

He stressed that it would be available only for "very low-risk inmates" who often work in the community, but return to halfway houses at night.

The House-passed measure included provisions to bar from the program inmates convicted of a wide list of crimes, from sex offenses to violent acts.

Only inmates with less than 11 months left on their sentences will be eligible to participate.

Braddock said an offshoot of the program will be behavior modification of some inmates

"It encourages good behavior because all of their movements are tracked 24 hours a day," he said.

Rankin said the devices, which are placed on an inmate's ankle, can be programmed to alert corrections personnel if an alcohol offender, for instance, goes to a bar or other places where alcohol is served.

The device would alert officials once the person being monitored arrives at a location that's been programmed into the tracking system.

"It tends to cause them to stay away from the old hangouts," she said.

She said other states that have used the devices have seen a decline in recidivism.

"It's an extremely desirable new technology because it helps to reintegrate an offender into society and it provides significant behavior modification that cannot be achieved any other way," she said.

Braddock and Rankin rejected the notion that it is another form of early release of inmates.

"They are still in the custody of the Department of Corrections. It is just custody with invisible bars," Rankin said.