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| Technology Supporting Community-based Corrections |
| By Patrick Hyde |
| Published: 01/21/2002 |
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Many factors--from evaporating state surpluses, fixed if not shrinking criminal corrections budgets, the public's reluctance to fund more prison and jail construction, staffing, to jail and prison overcrowding -- are leading community corrections officials to seek alternatives for managing our nation's offender population. For many, there has been a shift to community-based corrections that demands offender accountability, maintains public safety, and conserves resources and energy for the most hardened offenders. As a result, many agencies are turning to technology to help supervise probationers, parolees, even inmates released to the community. This technology includes new generations of electronic monitoring, remote alcohol testing equipment, biometric technology such as voice verification systems, and on a limited basis due to cost and lack of field testing, global positioning systems. 'Judges, prosecutors, operators of correctional facilities, and the community benefit from having a full range of sanction alternatives, including community-based supervision programs,' said Stanley Kephart, recently retired chief probation officer for the Tulare County Probation Department in Visalia, Calif. Tulare County has more than 6,000 probationers in the community at one time. Several hundred are supervised through an electronic monitoring program that was formerly run by the county but recently privatized. 'This allowed us to manage these offenders on a 'tethered' system of frequent contact and save our beds for hard criminals,' he said. For criminal corrections agencies such as the Tulare County Probation Department, technology that monitors the whereabouts of offenders also helps manage their compliance to court sanctions. The electronic monitoring equipment involves transmitters worn by the offenders and field monitoring devices installed in the home that are connected via phone lines to central computers that track an offender's presence or absence in an area. Many ancillary devices are available to support this supervision, including drug or alcohol testing devices and portable monitoring devices that allow probation or parole officers--from their car--to check whether a person wearing the transmitter is in a class or on a job site. Many corrections officials say technology helps them to shift attention to the high-risk offenders and reduce work caseloads, in turn leading to improved public safety. 'Before we began using electronic monitoring technology, our field supervision officers literally went to an offender's home in the middle of the night. Now, we can monitor their location with electronic monitoring and conduct random job site verification with hand held equipment that reads transmissions from an offender's transmitter,' said Thomas Hadlow, community corrections program coordinator for the Idaho Department of Corrections. The Idaho DOC program monitors more than 200 high-risk offenders, those deemed in need of a highly structured program, in its electronic monitoring program. Ease of use for agencies is just as important as reliability, many say. For example, voice verification systems can maintain multiple location checks on offenders throughout a day. These systems supervise offenders through a series of daily telephone calls-- random, scheduled, inbound and outbound--to approved locations, such as an offender's residence or work. For many agencies, the use of technology allows officials to move non-violent, lower risk offenders to the community where they can receive treatment for addictions. In Pierce County, Wash., the sheriff's department turned to electronic monitoring to help alleviate an overcrowding problem that plagued the 1,275-bed county jail throughout the '90s. Rather than be mandated by the courts to release inmates prematurely and unsupervised because of the overcrowding, officials turned to electronic monitoring for appropriate candidates. 'About 60 to 70 inmates are supervised electronically in the community while another 120 probationers are monitored,' said Jack Christofferson, program manager for a Day Reporting Center in Pierce County. In addition, all inmates in the community and about 60 percent of the probationers are also using a remote alcohol-testing device, called Sobrietor. 'Offenders are identified through a voiceprint, they then submit deep lung tests remotely via phone lines, ensuring compliance with sobriety orders,' he said. Pierce County officials say many offenders ordered to report to the DRC found day reporting more demanding and unpleasant than incarceration. An intensive community program that combines surveillance, accountability, and intensive programming can be more demanding than incarceration. 'It's no picnic,' said Officer Crystal Collins, who manages Pierce County Sheriff Department's EM program. 'They know from the outset that being with their families in the community is a privilege that will be revoked quickly for violations.' Self-Pay Component In Pierce County as well as in many other jurisdictions, offenders are required to pay for a portion of their electronic supervision. Proponents say this is 'beer and cigarette money' for offenders that helps reduce pressure on stretched budgets, goes toward reduced caseloads, allows for additional services for offenders, provides symbolic restitution, alleviates taxpayer burden, and adds a sense of responsibility for the offender. In Tulare County, offenders are assessed a sliding fee daily rate of twice their hourly wage to fund the electronic monitoring services. An offender making $6/hour would be assessed $12 daily. In Pierce County, offenders are assessed a flat rate of $12 daily for electronic monitoring alone and $15 daily for both electronic monitoring and remote alcohol testing. In both cases, assistance is available for indigent clients. Public Safety Number One Issue For all jurisdictions using technology to monitor and manage offenders in the community, public safety is critical. Most measure and manage public safety by: * Matching offender supervision levels to their risk * Tailoring support programs to their needs * Quick reinforcement of positive or negative behavior * Active supervision * Supportive networks * Departmental collaboration The U.S. Department of Justice estimates one in five state prisoners leaves prison with no post-release supervision, a less than desirable situation for maintaining ongoing public safety. Many community correction officials suggest by managing offenders re-entry to society, we can help them succeed in their transition back into the community, resulting in a slow down in prison population growth, less overall taxpayer burden, and lower recidivism. To help manage offenders re-entering our communities, many have turned to available technology. 'Public safety involves more than simply incarcerating an individual. That would be for someone who has exhausted all intermediate sanctions and treatment,' said Idaho DOC's Hadlow. 'Technology helps us to monitor an individual's compliance to programs and treatment while they are in the community taking advantage of these programs.' Resources: U.S. Department of Justice www.usdoj.gov Tulare County Probation Department Telephone: (559) 733-6207 Pierce County Day Reporting Center Telephone: (253) 272-0200 American Probation and Parole Association www.appa-net.org Telephone: (859) 244-8203 Idaho Department of Corrections www.corr.state.id.us/ * Patrick Hyde is a freelance writer based in Boulder, Colo., who writes about corrections, health care and technology. |
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