Congressman Jim Nussle, a G-O-P candidate for governor, says if he’s elected, he’ll ensure every sex offender who’s released from prison wears a special and expensive device so they can be tracked at all times, day and night. Nussle says there are about six-thousand registered sex predators in Iowa today. “Sadly, in our communities and in our streets often their movements are unknown,” Nussle says.
Nussle says putting a bracelet on a sex offender that can be tracked via satellite will help enforce the new state law which forbids sex offenders from living within two-thousand feet of a school or day care. “It doesn’t go far enough if you can’t enforce it,” Nussle says. “We now need to be able to implement real-time monitoring or a global position system that allows us to know…if a sexual predator is in violation of the 2000 foot rule or if they’re near a school or a playground or a child care center and this gives that real time prevention measure that can stop a repeat offense from taking place.”
Nussle acknowledges it’s an expensive proposition to outfit every sex offender who’s released from prison with a bracelet that can be tracked by satellite on a 24/7 basis. Nussle says systems already in place in California and Florida indicate it costs up to seven dollars a day to monitor a sex offender via satellite. He estimates it would cost three- to five-million dollars to implement such a system in Iowa, but Nussle says the price tag would be worth it if it prevents repeat sex crimes.
Over 80 percent of the sex crimes against children are committed in the home and committed by a relative or someone the child knows. “This obviously doesn’t prevent all abuse from occurring,” Nussle says. “Sadly, this is one of those silent crimes that goes on constantly. What we’re trying to do here…is to prevent reoccurrence when an abuser is released from prison or from jail.” Nussle says 25 percent of the people who commit a sex crime will commit another within five years. He says constant monitoring can help prevent that second offense from occurring.
And Nussle also took a shot at current Democrat Governor Tom Vilsack who is not seeking reelection. Nussle says Iowans’ confidence in state government’s ability to protect them has been shaken by the escapes at Fort Madison and walk-aways from work release programs, and his proposal would reassure the public. Nussle faces Bob Vander Plaats is the Republican primary this coming June.