One alternative to sending a person to prison is to use an electronic monitoring program, says Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-Dist. 5, who is chairman of the House Alternatives to Sentencing Work Group.

He added that as many as 5,000 inmates in the state prison system for their first offense may qualify for such a program.

On August 20, Dora Schriro, the new director of the Department of Corrections, appeared before the panel and informed members that as of August 19 the prison system had 31,035 – 4,107 more than the system had beds for.

By 2008, she said if there were no changes in sentencing practices the prison population would grow to 40,512.

So, an electronic monitoring program that reduces the prison population by as many as 5,000 inmates could be attractive to the state, which because of its financial bind is currently unable to expand the system to keep up with the population growth.

Mr. Konopnicki says the electronic monitoring program has been tried by Maricopa County and two cities. “We need to find out what went well and what didn’t,” he says.

In a typical system, inmates qualify based on the severity of their offense and whether they are a first-time offender. They can be released from prison early into the program or sentenced to serve their time in the program.

They are often outfitted with a tamper-resistant transmitter on the ankle that uses a global positioning system to determine their whereabouts at any given time. Mr. Konopnicki says the devices are accurate up to three meters.

A similar program was started by the City of Denver in 1992.

According to statistics provided by that city, 14,833 persons have been sentenced to the program, and 93 per cent have successfully served their sentence. While serving time in the program, 80 per cent found jobs and were employed.

Five per cent failed to make required appearances.

Program Requires Meeting With Probation Officers

The program employs a probation supervisor and nine probation officers. All offenders are required to meet with a probation officer at least once a week.

In addition to the ankle bracelets, the program uses alcohol units that measure the offender’s breath alcohol content over the telephone, units that verify if an offender at a specific location and a paging system that requires offenders to call in at various times.

“Founders of the program believed that intermediate sanctions offered to the Denver County Courts would provide needed alternatives to incarceration,” says a report on the Denver program. “The program has had phenomenal growth and success in the past eight years. This can be attributed to the program’s credibility, accountability and the rapid response of the program staff regarding violations.

“Had the 14,833 offenders sentenced to monitoring gone to jail, it would have cost the city more than 25 million dollars,” it continues.

The Denver program charges each offender a one-time fee of $75 and a daily fee, which is based on income.

“With this self-sustaining program receiving fees from offenders, there has been no cost to the city and a contingency fund to help indigent offenders has been maintained,” says the report.

House Speaker Jake Flake, R-Dist. 5, established the House work group, and he dropped by for the August 20 meeting.

Mr. Konopnicki says he hopes to meet regularly on Wednesdays.

He says the group will be gathering data for a special session on prisons, which he expects could happen in late September or early October. He says the timing depends on how critical the bed shortage becomes and how quickly Ms. Schriro can put together her strategies for dealing with the problem. —