The State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections established the Electronic Monitoring Center to provide electronic monitoring to multiple agencies including the Division of Juvenile Corrections, law enforcement agencies and the Division of Community Corrections. The Electronic Monitoring Center provides ankle bracelets equipped with GPS or Global Positioning Systems and alcohol monitoring. Over 1250 people are monitored through Wisconsin’s electronic monitoring program. The Center recently announced an effort to double the number of monitors in the program.
Participants undergo 24 hour a day, 7 day a week monitoring. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently upheld a law to allow lifetime monitoring of defendants. The court, with a unanimous decision, wrote that lifetime monitoring of a defendant was not a punishment for the offender but rather designed to protect the public-at-large. Offenders required to submit to lifetime GPS monitoring have generally plead guilty to a child sex crime. The opinion, filed May 18, 2018 determined that lifetime monitoring was not punitive.
