Rehberg Secures $217,000 in Funding for Montana Offender Notification and Tracking System from the Office of Congressman Denny Rehberg

July 13, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today secured $217,000 in funding for the Montana Offender Notification and Tracking System (MONTS) in the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill.

“Overcrowding in Montana’s prisons is requiring courts to put more and more offenders on parole in our communities,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “However, our state’s vast size makes it difficult to track and monitor these individuals day in and day out. The new system will give law enforcement officers a greater ability to do that.”

The MONTS project will develop an integrated offender notification and tracking system and deploy it across Montana. Most local and county jails operate near or beyond design capacity, limiting options for the courts and contributing to a backlog of un-served felony warrants. The Montana prison population is at an all-time high, and projected to increase by 40% over the next six years. The MONTS project will close the gap faced by regular tracking systems in rural areas by developing, integrating, and deploying a system that delivers real-time, GPS-based location awareness of offenders. The system will also include a comprehensive notification system to alert authorities when an offender is out of an authorized zone or near a prior victim. The system will be administered by the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.

“This is the future, and it’s now coming to Montana,” said Bill Slaughter, Director of Public Safety Initiatives for AquilaVision, Inc who is the prime contractor for the MONTS project. “The MONTS project will improve cutting edge technology so that law enforcement can maintain better control and supervision of offenders, especially in our rural areas. This is an important step for public safety throughout Montana.”

“Budget constrictions within the state and an increasing prisoner population have put a burden on our legal system to find new ways to deal with offenders,” said Rehberg. “I’ll continue to do all I can to help ease that burden through programs like MONTS.”