What is the Location Monitoring Program:
A supervision condition or sentencing alternative that requires people to be confined to their homes, tracked in the community, or both. They're linked to a monitoring system through an ankle transmitter or a tracking device worn or carried 24 hours a day. With location monitoring, the court determines the extent to which people are restricted case by case, requiring some individuals to remain on 24-hour-a-day lockdown at home and allowing others to leave for preapproved and scheduled absences, such as for work, school, treatment, church, attorney appointments, court appearances, and other court-ordered obligations.
How the court uses it
- As a way to monitor the location of people on supervision and protect the public from any threat they pose.
- As an alternative to detention in pretrial cases, to help enhance community safety.
- As a punishment in post-sentence cases, viewed as more punitive than regular supervision but less restrictive than imprisonment.
- As a sanction when people violate the conditions of their supervision.
The officer's duties
- Screen people to determine whether they're eligible for location monitoring. Those who aren't recommended to participate include:
– Serious or repeat offenders
– People who previously failed on supervision - Check to make sure they're adhering to their approved schedule.
- Check monitoring equipment to make sure that it's working and to look for signs of tampering.
- Respond to any alerts that may indicate a problem, including:
– Unauthorized absence from home
– Failure to return home after an authorized absence
– Leaving home early or returning home late
– Entrance into or near an unauthorized area - Step in to control and correct the situation if people on location monitoring:
– Don't adhere to their approved leave schedule
– Go to an unapproved location
– Tamper with equipment
– Otherwise fail to comply with their release conditions
The officer's challenges
Supervising people on location monitoring is demanding, time-consuming, and sometimes dangerous, requiring
- frequent phone calls to make sure people are adhering to their approved schedules.
- frequent, unannounced face-to-face visits.
- twenty-four-hour, 7-day response to alerts.
What the benefits are
- Allows people on supervision to continue to support their families and pay their taxes.
- Costs much less than incarceration.
- Provides necessary supervision structure.
- Through technology, provides the capability to verify that an individual either is in an authorized location or is in or near an unauthorized location