You gotta love it. Sen, R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, a candidate for attorney general, has proposed slapping a Geographic Positioning System (GPS) tracking device around the ankles of sex offenders who had been sentenced with prison terms of 10 years or more.
“There’s no science out there that says these sex offenders can be rehabilitated,” Deeds told the Charlottesville Daily Progress. Oklahoma, he noted, uses GPS devices to track the whereabouts of registered sex offenders at a cost of about $9,000 per offender per year. Tagging all of Virginia’s 13,000 sex offenders could potentially cost as much as $117 million, the Daily Progress said. Yes, Deeds countered, but the cost would come down as manufacturers of the ankle bracelets achieved economies of scale with growing volume.
I’m admitting my ignorance here. Are those 13,000 “violent sex offenders” all child molesters? Or do they include rapists, wife beaters and others convicted of crimes against adults? From my understanding, rapists and wife beaters–as much as they richly deserve their time in jail–are not considered incorrigible and, therefore, are less of a threat than the child molesters.
If we could bring down the cost to a few million dollars, the idea would be well worth it. With the cable news networks fanning the flames of hysteria every time some poor child is abducted in Florida or Arizona, mothers of young children across the country are consumed with fear. Deeds’ idea, though a little nutty sounding, might give them some piece of mind.