Some parolees who violate terms of their prison release will be assigned to day reporting rather than sent back to prison. Those parolees eligible for day reporting must be at the station from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, leaving only to work and attend rehabilitative programs. They'll be tracked by the GPS all day, and when they go home at night. If it performs as advertised, the high-tech monitoring system will provide a welcome level of security above that of typical parole and probation programs. It s clearly an improvement over older technology, which only reveals if someone under house arrest leaves home during restricted hours, not where they re headed.
Savings is another benefit.
A private firm has been contracted to operate the state s three day-reporting stations. Kansas day-reporting plan makes sense, especially at a time when authorities are seeking corrections methods that are less expensive than building and maintaining prisons, and less risky than freeing offenders early. Still, the plan is sure to raise eyebrows of civil libertarians who fear the Orwellian possibilities of such personal tracking devices. As with any new program that impacts the public, day reporting will require close scrutiny. Kansans want to know that corrections officials do indeed send the more serious offenders back to prison, and that civil rights are not violated.