A 50-year-old man imprisoned on a sex abuse charge will get an early release from prison, but state officials say he’ll have to wear an electronic bracelet on his ankle so his movements can be monitored.
Michael McGill was arrested at Valley West Mall in West Des Moines last April for grabbing a 21-year-old man. McGill was charged with assault with intent to commit sex abuse and he’s spent eight months in prison. McGill is eligible for early release due to good behavior behind bars and he’ll be released this Saturday, but Fred Scaletta of the Iowa Department of Corrections says McGill be transferred to the Fort Des Moines Correctional Center — a halfway house — and will be forced to wear that bracelet monitor.
"With the ankle bracelet, if there was any attempt to move away from that facility to any amount of distance we would know that very, very quickly," Scaletta says.
McGill was sentenced to two years in prison and the Department of Corrections asked a judge to declare him a sexually-violent predator so he could be held beyond his sentence, but a psychologist determined McGill did not meet the criteria. While McGill is being released from prison, authorities may "supervise" his movements for the next 10 years, according to Scaletta.