The Governor signed the GPS sex offender bill into law last year but now he only wants the legislature to fund part of it.
Corrections Secretary Matt Frank thinks the GPS monitoring system is a great idea, but DOC can't make a convicted sex offender wear a tracking device once they've served their time. "We could have funding appropriated for offenders who would be wearing these things (GPS ankle bracelets), but we'd have no way to really hold them accountable," said Frank. "We don't have supervision authority for them any more. They're discharged from their sentence."
That's why Governor Jim Doyle only asked for enough money to track offenders still under supervision. Another problem occurs when a convicted offender moves out of state once his sentence is complete. "We don't think Wisconsin taxpayers should have to pay for a sex offender who moves to another state," said Frank, adding that DOC isn't trying to interpret the law. "We want to work with the legislature, in fixing some of these flaws."