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Electronic Monitoring: Hidden Costs of Home Arrest Programs

NCJ Number
119943
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 51 Issue: 6 Dated: (October 1989) Pages: 94-95
Author(s)
G Schlatter
Date Published
1989
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article points out that some communities have found that electronic monitoring and home arrest programs can be costly.
Abstract
Failure to assess the hidden costs of home arrest programs can lead to unpleasant surprises. Monitoring prisoners' daily activities is a 24 hour a day job. Developing and staffing a monitoring program can be costly for jurisdictions with few prisoners under home arrest. Vendor operated monitoring can reduce costs for jurisdictions. Unplanned visits by probation officers to prisoners in the home arrest program can also increase costs. Using improved technology, probation officers can save their jurisdictions money by requiring prisoners to come to the probation offices for monitoring equipment inspection. A community planning a home arrest program must explore many products, procedures, and details in order to find the most economical arrangement for the safe monitoring of probationers.