After Lorenzo Townes served 32 years for a string of sexual offenses, including the rape of a 10-year-old girl, he spent two years at a treatment center, then appealed and was granted his release. Four months later, he was arrested for raping a 12-year-old girl, according to The Washington Post.
Many states are grappling with what to do with repeat, violent sex offenders like Townes. Some have adopted measures to ensure offenders aren’t awarded complete freedom after they’ve served their prison time. As a result, companies that make electronic monitoring devices are seeing increasing revenues as more states—13 so far—begin using their services.
 The logic of all sex laws: Putting GPS devices on sex felons is big money business. Guess who pays? The ex-cons themselves. |
The company that supplies Virginia’s electronic monitoring devices, iSECUREtrac, is an Omaha, Nebraska-based firm that claims to be the leader in GPS offender tracking. iSECUREtrac offers active and passive GPS tracking, which can either tell police where an offender has been over the course of a day, or keep track of his movement moment-to-moment. Surveillance like this is supposed to prevent repeat offenses by keeping offenders away from areas like schools and letting a con know that he’s being watched.
iSECUREtrac’s revenues for the first nine months of 2006 are up 55 percent to $5.9 million. $5.3 million of that comes from “recurring revenues from leasing and hosting of monitoring systems,” a 66 percent increase, the company reports. They’re also revving up sales and marketing, customer service, and research and development of their products. Gross profit margins for the company are at 60 percent.
Virginia currently has 25 electronic tracking units from iSECUREtrac, which are used for serious or violent offenders, according to Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. The units cost $5 to $9 per day to operate plus $2 per day for support services. Add to that pay for parole and probation officers who supervise the program, which is run by the Virginia Department of Community Corrections. Monitoring sex offenders “is a labor intensive activity,” Traylor says.
But it’s still less expensive than keeping an offender in prison, which the Department of Corrections estimates at $21,000 per year. Some states even require sex offenders to pay their own monitoring costs if they are able. There are currently 171 sex offenders in the Charlottesville area; none are under electronic supervision.
Congress is considering a bill, HR 3133, which toughens federal codes for sex offender registries and would provide federal grants to states for electronic monitoring programs. The bill’s sponsor? Ironically, it’s Florida Republican Mark Foley, who recently resigned from Congress for sending sexually explicit messages to teenage male pages.
