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By Greg Bartlett

For safety reasons, some offenders can’t be released into the community. Maybe it’s because they’re sociopaths and have to stay locked inside a secure facility to ensure that they don’t return to their crimes, or maybe it’s because they’re mentally unstable and it’s impossible to predict what they’ll do. No matter why an offender stays inside a facility rather than in the community, authorities need to be able to make sure that the offender stays where he or she is supposed to stay.

But what happens when an offender escapes? Recently an offender who was mental health care patient escaped and, while running away, killed an elderly man in his home. Secure facilities do everything possible to ensure that an inmate or patient won’t escape, but sometimes it does happen, and the results can be deadly.

GPS monitoring can track an offender’s location at all times. It has already become popular with law enforcement officials when an offender is released into the community on probation or parole, but it could also be beneficial for inmates and patients.

Some mental health patients who are also offenders and are being held in secure facilities in London are going to be tracked with GPS monitoring. Officials are concerned with the safety of the community in case a patent escapes, and believe that GPS tracking is the best way to ensure that, if an offender does manage to slip outside the grounds, officials can be alerted at once and can locate the offender.

If, for instance, a patient manages to escape, the GPS monitoring device can alert officials the moment he or she goes outside the facility’s grounds. Authorities will be able to determine the precise location of the offender and to find him or her through the GPS device. Once the escaped offender is located, it won’t take long to find him or her and return to the facility – before anyone in the community is injured.

GPS tracking may be especially helpful for offenders who are permitted to wander on the grounds or to visit in the community, but it can also be helpful to track any offender whom authorities feel is at risk. GPS monitoring can give authorities and the community peace of mind because they know that, if the offender does escape, the facility’s authorities will be instantly alerted, will know where to find the escapee, and the offender will be quickly returned to the facility.