Subject: [NEXTEL-1] High-tech device frees jail space

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Date: Sun, 05 Jan 2003 14:51:05 -0500

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Brian Dalton returns to his car with the satellite-based tracking device that always lets officials know where he is. -- Matt Detrick / staff photo

High-tech device frees jail space

Satellite-based system lets officials follow every step, but it is not perfect.

By Vic Ryckaert

[email-masked]

January 02, 2003

Some Marion County officials hope they can harness
two dozen satellites to make room at the overcrowded jail -- by
helping them keep track of suspects like Brian Dalton.

While awaiting trial on domestic violence charges,
Dalton has become one of 27 defendants in the county monitored by
the Global Positioning System, the same network of technology that
guides smart bombs and tracks hikers.

Experts say satellite monitoring is the future of
home detention. Local officials say expanding the program would
divert inmates from the Marion County Jail while still protecting
victims and the community.

The system lets officials know when Dalton, for
example, is at a job interview, picking up groceries or home in
bed. It's intrusive, but the 30-year-old knows it beats sitting in
a jail cell.

"I was really hesitant when the judge told me this
was part of my release," said Dalton, 30, who faces charges after
reports of a violent confrontation with his ex-girlfriend. "Now I
see it as another way to show my innocence."

Community Corrections has been using the GPS home
detention system for about a year -- mostly for defendants awaiting
trial in domestic battery cases. A few in the program have been
convicted. The system is also being used in about 25 other
states.

Even Ken Falk of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union
believes this kind of alternative to incarceration could be a
much-needed release valve in a county where jail overcrowding has
prompted lawsuits and violence.

"This is nothing more than basically having a super
probation officer follow you around," Falk said.

"This is nothing more than a system that does a
better job of making sure the court's orders are enforced."

The GPS system consists of a 4-pound box of
electronics and an ankle bracelet that must be with the defendant
at all times. The gadgetry inside the box contains a cell phone and
a GPS receiver -- like those used by travelers and truckers to
navigate the highways.

The receiver takes in signals from GPS satellites
orbiting 12,000 miles out in space and tracks the suspect's
location at all times. It uses the cell phone to relay the
information to a central computer system at all hours.

Home detention monitors can see where the defendant
is on a computerized map. Computers keep a record of everywhere the
suspect has been and can even tell supervisors if he was driving
over the speed limit.

The system is programmed with "hot zones," places
the suspect is barred from visiting, such as the victim's home or
work. If the defendant gets too close to an off-limits area, the
box beeps like a loud pager and sends an instant message via
e-mail, pager or fax to officials at Community Corrections.

The notifications are monitored 24 hours a day by a
staff member. If authorities see a suspect heading for a victim,
they will call and warn the person.

Such 24-hour monitoring was one result of the
December 1998 death of Juanita Hill in a murder-suicide.

She was killed when her husband, Robert Hill, cut
off his home monitoring ankle bracelet, drove to the Northwestside
home he once shared with his estranged wife and shot her to death.
He then turned the gun on himself.

Following procedures then in place, the private
firm that monitored the electronic devices faxed a notice of his
cutting of his ankle bracelet to the Marion County Justice Agency,
where it sat unread overnight while Hill completed the
murder-suicide.

Community Corrections Director Brian Barton hopes
to expand the GPS program next year and believes someday everyone
on home detention will be monitored via satellites.

"I think it makes a lot of sense if you put the
right person on the program," Barton said. "For many folks who have
made a bad decision, why not allow them to continue to be a
taxpayer?"

The system does have flaws.

It can't stop someone determined to commit a
violent act.

On a technical level, the tracking signals can be
interrupted if the suspect goes to a rural area with few cell phone
towers or enters a large building that can block signals.

That's why the monitors get paged when an offender
goes to court in the City-County Building. On a recent day, 56
alerts went to supervisors watching the 27 people because cell
phone signals were lost.

The system costs $10 a day, a cost often paid by
the defendant. It costs $40 a day to keep someone in jail.

A typical home detention unit is cheaper -- about
$1.50 a day -- but offers much less intense supervision. In Marion
County, that system is used to keep tabs on 634 people awaiting
trial or serving time on home detention.

The old system uses a clock radio-sized box
connected to the offender's home phone and an ankle bracelet. It
can tell authorities only whether the offender is home or out.

To receive any warning of an alleged batterer's
approach, a victim must also have a box connected to her or his
phone.

That device sounds an alarm when suspects cut their
bracelets or go near a victim's home.

Dan Beto, the president of the National Association
of Probation Executives, said corrections officials across the
country are seeing the advantages of the GPS system. But people
continue to be key in effective home detention.

"It's a tool to enhance supervision and to enhance
public safety," Beto said. "It is not a substitute for good
supervision."

Call Vic Ryckaert at 1-317-635-7592.

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