Sponsor Statement for HB 272

"Electronic Monitoring"

HB 272 establishes the parameters for an electronic monitoring program in Alaska.

Electronic monitoring (EM) is a system where around-the-clock surveillance is provided for certain convicted offenders as an alternative to incarceration. The transmitter emits a signal to a field monitoring device, which receives and records various types of information about the offender, from location to monitoring alcohol consumption, depending on the degree of sophistication.

As the number of criminal convictions in Alaska continues to rise, we are faced with only three alternatives: build more prisons to incarcerate offenders, exacerbate already overcrowded prisons in violation of the Cleary decree, or allow more offenders to avoid incarceration. Current estimates for new prison construction exceed $100,000 per bed, which make construction of new prisons an oppressively expensive proposition; especially now, when financial resources are so strapped. At the same time, the public is calling for tougher treatment of criminals.

I believe we must look to alternatives such as EM to help resolve our dilemma. EM is used widely throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Here in the US, EM equipment became commercially available in 1984, and it's use has grown rapidly since. In 1988 the Nat'l Institute of Justice recorded 826 offenders being observed through EM. By the following year, this number had skyrocketed to 2,277. According to a survey in 1993, there were 66, 650 EM units in use. This rapid escalation attests to the effectiveness and economies of EM as an alternative correction measure to imprisonment.

Through an EM program, judges can sentence certain, non-violent, offenders to house arrest, or other restrictive sanctions, which leaves more room in our correction facilities for violent criminals.

HB 272 does not require that judges sentence offenders to wear electronic monitoring equipment, it simply grants statutory authority to the judiciary to consider EM in sentencing.