Under a bill approved by the state Senate Tuesday, Wisconsin's most serious child sex offenders would be monitored for the rest of their lives by GPS tracking.
"Project Kid-Safe," which was passed in a bipartisan 28-5 vote, aims to deter sexual re-offense and improve public safety, according to bill author Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford.
"We will track the worst of the worst of child sex predators 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the rest of their lives," Suder said after the session vote.
If approved by Gov. Jim Doyle, the bill would require certain child sex offenders, including those guilty of first- and second-degree sexual assault, to wear tracking bracelets around their ankles. The bracelets would be tracked by global satellites, allowing law enforcement officials to know the offenders' whereabouts at any time.
As bill supporters applauded the advanced technology as an efficient way to protect the state's children, others expressed concern over the large costs involved.
While all of the five dissenting senators cited spending concerns when voting against the measure, Suder said he believes taxpayers would not feel burdened.
"I don't think it's too much for taxpayers to do everything we can to reduce the possibility of these monsters re-offending," he said.
But while Suder acknowledged the tracking requirement could cost millions of dollars, he said federal funding and offender payment programs would defray much of the state's burden.
According to Suder, the state would charge offenders for the cost of their monitoring systems in an effort to both save public resources and prevent re-offense.
"The state Department of Corrections' research indicates that in programs where we charge offenders, there is a 70 percent success rate," he added.
But others — including Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, who voted against the measure — expressed less certainty in the effectiveness of GPS tracking.
Risser called the bill a futile attempt and the makings of a "fantastic bureaucracy" that does little to address the root of the problem.
"It's an image bill. People say, 'Oh my gosh, it will take care of things,'" Risser said. "[But] you'd have to have people watching other people presumably 24 hours a day. You track people you don't like, but what they do and what they are is not improvable, nor stoppable."
But Suder argued GPS tracking does work to stop offenders from re-assaulting child victims, pointing to a similar system established in Florida that yielded a strong success rate.
Before the implementation of its monitoring system, Florida reported a 34 percent re-offense rate, whereas afterwards, the rate dropped to less than 2 percent, Suder said.
The Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault agreed, but added the bill cannot be considered the only way to prevent re-offense.
"GPS is one important tool that the Department of Corrections can use for sex offender management," WCASA's spokeswoman Jill Groblewski said. "It's definitely not a panacea, but it's one additional tool they can use within a broader plan."
As critics continue to debate the measure, the Assembly is expected to approve the altered bill before session ends next month, before sending it to the governor for review.
Doyle has indicated he will sign the bill and supports measures that further crack down on child sex offense.
According to Doyle spokesman Matt Canter, the governor has already launched an initiative to buy the equipment necessary to track an additional 200 sex predators over the couple dozen most dangerous offenders currently monitored by the state.
"The governor has spent his entire career tracking down and prosecuting and bringing to justice the most dangerous sex offenders in Wisconsin," Canter said. "He will continue to support any efforts to do so."
