Posts Tagged ‘offender rehabilitation’

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GPS technology is extremely effective when agencies respond appropriately

Monday, March 4th, 2013

A recent story published in the L.A. Times newspaper highlights the increase in the number of arrest warrants issued since October 2011 due to parolees removing their GPS monitoring device. The story states it’s easy for a parolee to cut off the device, but doing so triggers a notification to the supervising agent.

I feel the need to address this situation and provide more background on the straps used on GPS monitoring devices. I’ll start with our BLUtag device.

BLUtag

BLUtag and its strap

BLUtag, the most advanced, proven and reliable GPS monitoring device in the industry, is used throughout the state of California by many government agencies. It has monitored, tracked and reported the movements and violations of more sex offenders, gang members, high-profile offenders and repeat offenders than any other GPS device in the industry. Using this device allows these agencies to take immediate action when enrollees violate the terms of their supervision, including removing the device.

Supervising agents usually take immediate action when they receive a tamper notification. However, ambiguity in California laws regarding offender custody has impacted the ability of agencies to maintain the appropriate consequence for various types of violations.

No technology available today can prevent parolees, or any offender, from removing their monitoring device (GPS or RF) or committing other violations. The important functionality is for the device to immediately notify supervising agents to the violation so the required action can be taken.

BLUtag’s hypoallergenic, thermoplastic rubber strap securely keeps the device fastened around the enrollee’s ankle at all times. If an enrollee removes BLUtag, the device immediately reports the tamper event, so the assigned supervising agent can take the action required by the agency and the law.

Options

One manufacturer makes a strap for a GPS monitoring device marketed as “more secure,” which means it’s embedded with stainless steel cables or a strip of steel. Yes, the offender can’t remove the device with standard medical scissors, but neither can medical personnel for medical emergencies or law enforcement officers when booking offenders into jail for a violation.

Removing this device requires tools, which aren’t usually immediately available in emergency situations. If the offender experiences a medical emergency and loses a foot or part of the leg simply because medical personnel couldn’t quickly remove the monitoring device, the agency is at risk for a lawsuit.

Additionally, the “more secure” strap has been known to be removed where it inserts into the device or it breaks off at the same point. This certainly creates a question about its level of security. This type of strap doesn’t comply with the proposed National Institutes of Justice standards for Offender Tracking Systems.

Many solicitations specifically state the strap can’t be embedded with steel cables or straps. The industry (supervising agencies and vendors/manufacturers) recognizes the critical need for a strap that securely fastens the monitoring device around the offender’s ankle. But the strap can’t impair the ability of either medical or law enforcement personnel from removing it, especially in an emergency situation.

And I question whatever additional security it may provide. An offender can still remove the device with a steel-embedded strap – and it doesn’t matter to the offender if removing the device takes a few more seconds or a few more minutes. STOP has looked at adding a strap with embedded steel to our options, but ensuring that our device works as designed outweighs this option.

Current situation

The result of the situation described in the L.A. Times news story is appropriate consequences can’t be applied to the deserving offenders due to a lack of clear law. GPS is a tool, and an extremely effective one when properly utilized. The article has more to do with need to change the law in order to have proper consequences for parolees violating the terms of their supervision.

The government agencies using our device are successful with other options for handling the removal of a device and maintaining public safety as well.

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GPS technology isn’t just for enrollees considered “high risk”

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

GPS monitoring equipment is a viable supervision tool for enrollees with any risk level, which is demonstrated in a recent incident involving a juvenile in Marion County, Indiana. Even though the juvenile suspected of participating in a two-county crime spree was on electronic monitoring, it was RF technology. It is designed to report only when an enrollee is home and when he/she leaves. Marion County has four GPS monitoring devices that are reserved for juveniles classified as “high risk.”

So, here’s a juvenile not classified as “high risk,” yet he’s a suspect in fives crimes committed in two counties. Based on his curfew schedule, he left home on time in the morning. This didn’t generate any kind of notification because he was complying with his supervision requirements. However, what the juvenile’s probation officer didn’t know until much later was the juvenile never arrived at a school and became a suspect in several crimes.

Generally when enrollees are placed on RF monitoring, the supervising agent must drive around the jurisdiction at various times of the day and night with a mobile monitoring unit to confirm the enrollee is at the location he’s required to be at that time, such as school, work or home.

As the news story points out, staffing shortages hamper the Marion County Juvenile Probation Department’s ability to keep tabs on juveniles 24 hours a day. Additionally, the story points out some juveniles think nothing will happen if they violate their supervision requirements because they’re not monitored all day every day.

BLUtag GPS Monitoring Device

GPS monitoring devices track the movements of subjects on a 24/7 basis and can help keep enrollees stay compliant with their supervision requirements. If they aren’t compliant, these devices immediately notify supervising agents through email or text message.

In addition to tracking an enrollee’s movements, GPS technology allows an agency to identify specific areas where the enrollee must be, such as school or work, and places he must avoid, such as parks or shopping malls, during certain hours of the day.

Understandably, supervising agencies need cost-effective ways to increase the accountability of enrollees. The around-the-clock tracking capability of GPS devices provides a way for agencies to use its resources wisely and maintain community safety.

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California study: low repeat offense rate for those under supervision

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

The assumption that most arrests involve people who are on parole or probation is unfounded according to an extensive study recently completed in the state of California. The study, conducted in four cities by the Council of State Governments Justice Center, found “approximately one in five arrests involved an individual under probation or parole supervision; the majority of arrests involved people who were not under supervision.”

The study, the first of its kind, focused on more than 2.5 million adult arrest, probation supervision and parole supervision records from Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and Redlands between January 1, 2008 and June 30, 2011, which is shortly before California’s Prison Realignment legislation went into effect. The study provides valuable baseline information to use in gauging the future effectiveness of the realignment, which moved the supervision of California’s parolees into the counties’ hands from the state.

While the over-all results of the study indicate those on parole and probation are not likely to be arrested, there is one type of arrest to which they are disproportionately susceptible. More than one-third of drug arrests analyzed in the study involved people on parole and probation. One theory posited for this discrepancy is those individuals on parole and probation are more likely to suffer from mental illness and/or drug dependency issues. The researchers propose an increase in mental health and drug addiction services for those under supervision may be an appropriate response to this finding.

The study concludes the most effective way to reduce crime is to focus on the 80 percent of the population not under supervision. In addition, the researchers advise augmenting these efforts by better targeting the small portion of the parole and probation population who are disproportionately breaking laws, especially drug-related ones.

Obviously, more research is needed, particularly in California with the implementation of the Realignment legislation. However, this study, which happened with extensive cooperation between the police chiefs of all four cities and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, provides a good starting point for discussing many aspects of community supervision. Among those areas needing more discussion include how electronic monitoring can improve collaboration between parole, probation and law enforcement agencies. Hopefully states, counties and cities across the nation will take these results and not just talk about the issues, but work diligently toward solutions.

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Finally, a new outcomes study released

Friday, July 13th, 2012

It’s been years since a significant study of the efficacy of GPS on reducing recidivism and increasing compliance was completed and released. The original large-scale study was released in the mid-2000’s and nothing had been completed until recently. On March 31, 2012, Development Services Group, Inc. released a 100-page report on “Monitoring High-Risk Sex Offenders with GPS Technology: An Evaluation of the California Supervision Program.” This report was prepared through a grant from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

Although I found it an interesting read, to cut to the chase, the study showed, although slightly more expensive than traditional supervision, GPS monitoring improved program compliance and reduced recidivism when compared to the control group.

Important points of the report include the size of the study and the approach the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) takes to supervise parolees in the community. The Department provides an intensive supervision model few agencies employ, with lower case loads, available treatment programs and progressive sanctions.

I suggest you take some time to read this report and see how STOP can help you put together a program as successful as CDCR’s. The study can be found at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/238481.pdf.

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Educating your constituents

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Today’s post is again penned by Dennis Doffing, our National Sales Manager, Service Providers. As a reminder, he has shared his knowledge most recently about working with reporters when enrollee-related incidents happen in your agency. He’s also provided guidance on using the robust reporting capability in VeriTracks to document and support your agency’s evidence-based practices. As always, I appreciate his willingness to share his knowledge with my readers.

In this post for Utterback’s Utterings I want to discuss the importance of improving the awareness of your Electronic Monitoring program to your constituents through education. Constituents, as defined here, are everyone with a vested interest in your EM program. This can include funding sources, referral sources, public support agencies, client support groups and other key public officials. By title they are legislators, commissioners, judges, prosecuting/defense attorneys, public defenders, Sheriffs, jail administrators, victim advocates and many others. So many different people and groups are stakeholders in local programming, such as offender supervision, it makes sense to keep them up to speed on just what you are doing.

Why educate; what’s the benefit
A planned education session is very helpful to show your constituents the technology, hardware, software, program rules, policies and other aspects of your operation in an objective setting. Today all agencies have increasing responsibilities many times in conjunction with significant reductions in budget allocations or stagnant budgets, which becomes a reduction over time. All of which can create an urgent feeling to take the least complicated resolution to individual cases or broad classifications of cases.

The situation can over-simplify the handling of individual cases or offenders by backing the diverse group of constituents in your program into their individual roles and not necessarily looking at the larger picture. For example, defense attorneys will advocate the use of GPS as an alternative to jail while maintaining public safety and offender accountability. Alternatively the prosecution will advocate for the use of jail or other more stringent sanctions. This is the job of these constituents as part of the criminal justice system’s checks and balances. And what is the outcome of this situation? The loss of determining if a sanction or program is applicable to the situation because the whole picture and the goals of the program aren’t visible or understood – this results in each party fulfilling a specific role.

Who to educate and how
In the past, I successfully submitted a two-hour education curriculum to a state bar association’s Continuing Legal Education group as well as a state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) group. Attendees from both groups earned Continuing Education Units from their respective professional organization. The curriculum for both was the same and used nearly identical materials.

I put together a panel of people to speak on various aspects of the EM program, including the manufacturer’s rep, the local program coordinator and, even a judge who was an early supporter of this alternative. Equipment was scattered on the tables for attorneys, police officers and jail staff to handle and study. Packets of information included basic promotional materials, program rules, offender contracts and referral information. A computer and projector allowed us to show reports, alerts and tracking data on demo clients so everyone could view how the system worked and what information was provided to the agency with the EM program. Participation in the forum was active with lots of questions. It was a good forum for all the stakeholders to hear the same answers together as well as start discussions on who may be most appropriate to refer to the agency’s EM program.  The common ground covered in the educational forum helped with future discussions among the various stakeholders and created better understanding of the program and its goals and objectives.

Continue the dialogue
Another way to provide ongoing updates and information is through a newsletter or blog (such as this one!). If your department has a newsletter, blog or social media presence, see if you can become a regular contributor by providing updates on new technology, law changes, ongoing statistics, etc. Telling readers/followers how many jail days were saved or juvenile detention stays avoided in the last month/quarter is powerful information. What percentage of clients successfully completed the program last quarter? And of those not successful, why not?

Finally, keep track of the constituents showing interest in your efforts to provide ongoing objective data and information. If an event happens in or near your jurisdiction, you can quickly contact this smaller group of interested constituents to provide whatever background or position your agency may have and help diffuse a problematic situation or further a positive one.

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Handling inquiries from news reporters and others

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Today’s post is penned by a guest blogger, Dennis Doffing, National Sales Manager for Service Providers, at Satellite Tracking of People. He has posted on using VeriTracks for evidence-based practices in the past. I appreciate his willingness to share his knowledge with the readers.

I’m happy to get another opportunity to be a “Guest Utterer” on Greg’s Blog. Remember the old joke you know it will be a bad day when you arrive at work and a 60 Minutes crew is waiting in the lobby? Well, running an EM program means at some point you or your agency will come to the attention of news reporters, local and otherwise. Preparation by having some guidelines in place NOW will be a great help when reporters call about an incident.

Check what your agency may already have in place to handle requests from news reporters. Most agencies have a designated media relations department or public information professional. Take time to get to know these people or the individual professional and help them understand the mission of the program and the tools used to help keep enrollees accountable and change their behavior. Also explain how the program and its available tools help maintain a high level of public safety. Give them a list of contact people, including phone numbers and email addresses for inquiries received after hours or on weekends/holidays. Make sure you update the list of contact people when needed, such as changes in responsibilities, new hires or new phone/email information.

The media relations department or public information professional can likely provide training to you and/or your staff for talking to reporters. Prior to talking to a reporter, know what information can be released and adhere to the privacy laws in your jurisdiction. Privacy laws differ by state but most have information classified as public, private and confidential. For example, names of enrollees may be public due to open court information (not so with most juvenile cases), but addresses, schedules and victim information is likely classified as private or confidential.

Other ideas and considerations include:

  • Have a media packet available for reporters, which provides good background information. This usually consists of general program information, sample forms, equipment brochure, program statistics, general profile of the type of individual enrolled in the program, reports documenting evidence-based practices, industry standards and the like. If your agency publishes an annual report, include it in the information packet.
  • Gather relevant information, reports and data on a situation as soon as possible. Also, discuss with staff members and others the need to route all media requests to the agency’s media relations department or public information professional. Reporters already know to start there, but they also want the opportunity for exclusive information and/or interviews, so they may contact you or others in your agency directly.
  • Provide a timely response to a reporter’s request. Even though all reporters work on strict deadlines, it’s okay to take time to research an answer to a question. But don’t avoid reporters and their questions. Doing so can only make you and/or agency look bad to the reading/viewing public or cause the reporter to escalate his/her request to the agency’s administration or a legal subpoena.
  • Generate a simple media response policy if your agency doesn’t already have one. It can be as straightforward as the agency doesn’t comment on personnel issues or doesn’t comment on pending violation investigations. Whatever the policy, make sure your staff knows it and strictly adheres to it.
  • When speaking to reporters, be aware of sound bites. You may answer a question with a long narrative response, but what airs in the TV report or is published in the newspaper or a web site is a very small portion of that answer. It’s the portion of your response the reporter deems to be the most relevant or news worthy to the overall story. Work the theme into your response whenever possible. This takes practice and the media relations department or public information professional can help you develop sound-bite friendly responses through training.
  • Get to know local reporters when not in the midst of a situation. Media outlets remain hungry for news and information, especially since many of them are looking to fill 24 hours of programming every day. Work with the media relations department or public information professional to proactively pitch stories to the reporter(s) covering criminal justice issues in your jurisdiction. It could be a possible story on the positive impact your program is having on enrollees, their family and the community; key points from a report highlighting positive statistics or dollar savings to taxpayers.

This is only a brief overview on some ideas related to reporter interactions. It’s important to know who in your agency is the go-to person for inquiries from news reporters and how to respond to questions from reporters. Preparation is key and will serve you well during times of stress.

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Help support S.306, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2011

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Earlier this legislative session, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia re-introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act (NCJCA). It’s an important first step for addressing the problems with the criminal justice system. This commission will be tasked with the monumental effort of recommending concrete recommendations to reduce the number of individuals in our prisons and look for alternatives to protect the public, while offering rehabilitative and restitution opportunities.

According to the BJS (Bureau of Justice Statistics), more than 2.3 million men and women are in prisons throughout the U.S. Although our incarceration rate is the highest in the world, more than half of all people released from U.S. prisons re-enter the system within three years.

The NCJCA is currently supported by 20 Senators and has widespread bipartisan support. The NCJCA was passed by the House of Representatives during the previous legislative session, the 111th Congress, but was not brought to the Senate Floor.

It’s time to make a huge effort to pass the NCJCA in 2011. The experts and stakeholders that will be on the Commission can provide an important road map for the future of our criminal justice system. Please contact the U.S. Capital Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senator/Representative. You can also search online to find out who represents you in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and contact them. Express your support for S. 306 and make the 112th Congress the year NCJCA is enacted.

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High success rate for Sheriff’s Office’s GPS monitoring program

Monday, February 7th, 2011

BluTag GPS Monitoring Device

One of our customers in California uses GPS monitoring technology to help reduce its jail population while maintaining a high level of public safety and enrollee accountability. The level of success this Sheriff’s Office experiences with its GPS monitoring program is due in large part to the flexibility each supervising officer is afforded to help set up enrollees for success while ensuring accountability. Additionally, the supervising officers are armed, sworn law enforcement officers, which allows them to immediately bring in an enrollee in violation of his/her program. Read more about this successful program by clinking here.

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Tracking Success in action

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

One of our customers in Florida uses GPS monitoring technology to help reduce its jail population, which results in lower the overall costs for operating the jail. There’s a link to the case study describing the agency’s success and approach to GPS supervision and the benefits it has realized in a short period of time. There are more like this and I’ll share them in 2011.

I look forward to discussing the exciting projects and products STOP is developing for 2011.  I’m sure all of you will benefit from the suggestions that you and your fellow STOP system users have made.

Case Study St-Lucie County Pretrial, Florida

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Evidence Based Practice and VeriTracks Tools to support your success!

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Dennis Doffing, STOP’s national sales manager for service providers, writes the following post on Evidence-Based Practices. Thanks, Dennis, for sharing your knowledge with our readers.

At our 2010 Training Institutes we offered a session on EBP as it pertains to GPS monitoring. Because the use of GPS in community supervision settings has grown swiftly, we sometimes don’t think about how to fully utilize the available tools to generate the needed data for EBP documentation.. You can use our products for more than tracking to/from home and work. VeriTracks has a number of options for use in an EBP environment. Examples include using:

  • Silent Inclusion Zones to monitor attendance and duration at key counseling and rehabilitation meetings. Listing AA meeting locations, outpatient treatment address, etc. as zones gives you an easy way to see if enrollees went and how long they stayed.
  • Silent Exclusion Zones to map out undesirable places, such as known drug areas, gang houses or areas of interest, to show if enrollees visited that location without requiring you to respond in real time to an alert. You can determine if a random drug test is in order or if the enrollees merely drove by the location on the way to work or some other approved location.
  • Caseload or Agency-wide summary reports such as Enrollee Events Summary Table or Notification Summary by Event Type can assist in determining where you to focus attention to reduce events and improve overall program performance. Both are among the more than 100 online reports in VeriTracks Reports tab.
  • The Reasoncode consistently applied when un-enrolling an enrollee provides you with better data over time when reviewing how and why people leave your program. Taking this extra step also helps better define and provide a benchmark of success for you, your program and the enrollees.

All of our end-users know what they need in their particular area of expertise and application of STOP equipment in their programs. If you are using VeriTracks and STOP’s products to assist in your own evidence-based practices please share your ideas in the comments section. We all learn from the combined pool of knowledge!

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