squidpants

so I saw this article about Gov. Jeb Bush signing a bill stiffening the sentencing for child molesters in Florida. That's fine, but then I got to a part that worried me:

The bill also requires more monitoring of people convicted of molesting older children.

The new requirement only affects people convicted in the future, but it also has a provision that provides for GPS tracking of sex offenders who violate probation.

Advocates for the satellite monitoring say that in addition to warning authorities when a sex offender is someplace he shouldn't be — such as near a school — it also will allow for quick pinpointing of suspects if a child is abducted.

This is sort of strange, because it seems to me that monitoring all convicted criminals would logically follow. Then we could see where they are at all times, right? And to me, this is a real invasion of privacy, monitoring people like that, even if they are criminals. There have to be less intrusive ways to see if a sex offender is near a school, like the ankle bracelet thing people use for house arrest or something. Being able to see where someone is at all times seems very intrusive.

I mean, maybe this already happens, but it seems to me that counseling would be more effective than monitoring someone. I guess it's a question of how much privacy should people have? If everybody were monitored at all times, it would be easy to see who was at the scene when crimes were committed, but it'd also be easy to see if people are doing things the government doesn't want them to do, like protesting. And just because someone was at the scene, it doesn't mean they actually did it. I don't think there is the technology that allows people to see who is firing a gun or something like that. Complicated stuff.