NCJ Number
154280
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 59 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1995) Pages: 10-13
Date Published
1995
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article explains how the U.S. Probation Office in the Southern District of Mississippi began its electronic monitoring program with limited expectations but successfully expanded it for use with higher risk offenders.
Abstract
The electronic monitoring program was initially begun in 1994 to satisfy Federal sentencing guidelines in particular criminal cases. There were some reservations about the effectiveness of electronic monitoring in ensuring sufficient controls on offenders to prevent additional crimes. Consequently, initial selection criteria restricted participation to only offenders with no history of violence, mental illness, or severe substance abuse. After several high-risk offenders slipped through the entrance requirements and completed their terms successfully, policymakers believed the program could be used with drug users and other irresponsible or noncompliant offenders. The use of home confinement has expanded to include supervision violators, pretrial releasees, and selected pretransfer and prerelease cases where close monitoring might be useful in risk management. The home-confinement supervision model has been adapted to suit a largely rural populace, which requires that supervision case assignments be dispersed among many general supervision officers rather than to just one home-confinement specialist. In the first year, only four cases failed out of 49. Two of these cases were for unauthorized leave; one was for not adhering to home-confinement and other probation conditions; and the fourth tested positive for cocaine. 2 notes and 4 references