Why tight budget times will speed path to technocorrections

I am so sorry that Mike at the CS blog is calling it quits, because a local story from my local statehouse highlights why he is so right in emphasizing that tight state budgets will increase affinity for technocorrections.  This local Ohio statehouse news story (which may require a subscription) is headlined "Senators Told GPS Electronic Monitoring Of Offenders Could Save State $148 Million."  Here are excerpts:

Housing inmates in prison costs $69 per day.  Tracking some of them electronically would cost $18 per day and, a Senate panel was told this week, could save the state at least $148 million. 

For the third time this session, the Senate Judiciary Criminal Justice Committee was briefed on an electronic monitoring system that tracks travel of individuals who may be subject to restraining orders or on parole. Chairman Timothy Grendell (R-Chesterland) took a test drive with one of the Global Positioning Satellite bracelets from I-Secure Trac of Ohio.  Results were presented to the panel in the form of a computer map display of the state that reflected his travel.

"I had the benefit of wearing this device for several days this week," Sen. Grendell said.  He drove to church, to the bakery he owns, to downtown Cleveland, and eventually to the Statehouse.  He was fitted with a device about the size of an iPod that continually tracked him via satellite at 20-second intervals.  He discovered it also measured the speed at which his car was moving. "I was driving down here on I-71 when I was notified I was speeding.  It's amazing technology," Sen. Grendell said....

Chairman Grendell views use of electronic monitoring technology not only for stalkers, sex offenders and other law enforcement applications, but also as a potential way to relieve crowding in prisons.  He met this week with Director Terry Collins of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and a member of Gov. Ted Strickland's staff. "The administration is open to different solutions including the broader use of these technologies," said Keith Dailey, the governor's press secretary.

Some related posts on the costs and benefits of GPS tracking:

• Is the future parole with GPS and other techno-reentry devices?
• Every step you take, every move you make...
• Is GPS tracking a better way?
• More on the pros and cons of GPS tracking
• The devil's in the details of GPS tracking of sex offenders
• Are we willing to pay the costs of (effective?) technocorrections like GPS tracking?
• California commission considering costs of sex offender laws
• A practical challenge to GPS monitoring
• More reasons to expect a GPS-world of corrections