DALTON, Ga. — Remote monitoring of probationers is saving money for Dalton and easing overcrowding at the Whitfield County Jail — and those are helping save jobs, officials said.
“Justice is justice,” Chief Municipal Court Judge Jerry Moncus said. “And there are a lot of ways to determine how best to dispense that justice.”
Some defendants convicted in city court are allowed to remain free so long as they wear a radio transmitter attached to an ankle bracelet.
FAST FACTS
* Ankle bracelet monitors send a radio signal at timed intervals to a receiver in the probationer’s home.
* If the monitor moves out of range, a probation violation is noted.
* The ankle bracelets are designed to be tamper proof and monitor offenders around the clock.
* Anyone wearing an ankle bracelet who violates probation is removed from the program.
“We are using it exclusively for probation offenders,” Municipal Court administrator David Hamil said. “Rather than put them in jail, the court offers the option of a paying $6 per day to wear a monitor.”
The fee helps recover some costs for equipment and administration, but the city court program pays other dividends, officials said.
“It is a benefit to all: the courts, probation officers, defendants and all citizens,” Judge Moncus said. “This saves tremendous costs for the governmental agencies, and it allows defendants to maintain normalcy in their lives.”
He said it’s among numerous sentencing options available when an individual enters a guilty plea, but only certain offenders are allowed into the ankle bracelet program.
“We look at everything about an offender,” Judge Moncus said. “All the research of the individual is prepared and available when they enter a plea.”
Wearing the monitoring device does not excuse a probationer from conditions of probation such as notification of whereabouts, reporting to a probation officer, passing drug tests, attending classes and making restitution.
But each individual in supervised probation is one less inmate at the county jail, officials said.
Mr. Hamil said in the first five weeks after the program started in March, the county jail has been spared about 500 “inmate/days.”
That saves taxpayers the $45-per-day cost to house an inmate — not including any medical or pharmaceutical costs — to keep a nonviolent offender in maximum security, he said.
The benefits do not stop there.
“People tell us they will do anything to stay out of jail and not lose a job,” Mr. Hamil said. “Before the economy turned bad, many people with a 30-day or less term would have their job held open. Now, more employers terminate them.”
A lost job can mean added costs for social services, or delinquency on child support or other court-ordered payments — even loss of tax payments, Mr. Hamil said.
This is not the first time ankle monitors have been used by courts in Whitfield County. Superior Court began using the monitoring system in the fall of 2006, and the municipal court had a grant that paid for them for a trial period in 2007.
