GPS monitoring bracelets are not punishment.
Oh, I'm sure they suck. They might chafe. They could cause blisters. They will cramp your style, keep you out of swimming pools, cause a funny-looking bulge in your nylons, spoil your suntan, tether you to a power source for an hour a day.
They’ll subject you to derision — or worse. And they’re an enormous invasion of your privacy: Someone will always know where you are, and if you take off the monitor, they’ll come after you.
But a monitoring bracelet is not punishment. The state court of appeals says so.
DeAnthony K. Muldrow, 26, of Manitowoc found that out this week. He pleaded guilty seven years ago to third-degree sexual assault and to sexual assault of a child under age 16. Then, when he found out he was condemned to a lifetime of wearing a monitoring bracelet, he had second thoughts.
He got a year in prison and 10 years of probation, which probably was a pretty good deal, but he wasn’t happy about that lifetime bracelet. Neither the sentencing judge nor his own lawyer told him about it, so he wanted to withdraw his plea. It wasn’t offered freely, voluntarily and intelligently, he argued.
No dice, he was told. And the court of appeals this week agreed. The court doesn’t have to tell you every little thing, the appeals guys ruled. Just the potential punishments, which a GPS bracelet most certainly is not.
I don’t know why they’re called bracelets. They should be called anklets, but that’d probably take a different high court ruling. In any case, members of the state court of appeals probably have never had to wear one. But they were well aware of the unpleasantness of them. They had to study up on it to make their ruling.
“Per the factual stipulation (in a previous case) a person subject to lifetime GPS tracking must wear a 2.5 x 3.5 x 1.5-inch battery-powered tracking device around his or her ankle at all times for the rest of his or her life,” the court wrote. “It is a felony to tamper with the device in any way.
“The device can never be removed —- even while showering, bathing, and sleeping — sometimes causing discomfort and blistering.” ..Continued..
