Beginning in November 2012, FDAC continues to pave the way for innovative thinking by pioneering the UK\u2019s first Family Court Sobriety Pilot. As reported by the Daily Mail<\/a>, throughout the course of the pilot 13 individual parents were referred to after their drinking became so bad that their children had to be taken into foster care. Parents were tested 24\/7 using SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring<\/a>\u00a0technology as an alternative to other forms of testing that FDAC routinely carries out, such as blood, urine, and hair strand analysis.<\/p>\n Throughout the course of the pilot, parents wore the anklets to assess their drinking behavior and also demonstrate their commitment to sobriety. Data from the pilot shows that 91.6% of the days those parents were monitored were Sober Days<\/a>. A Sober Day can be defined as a 24-hour period in which a monitored individual has no confirmed consumption of alcohol and no confirmed attempt to tamper or circumvent testing in order to mask the consumption of alcohol.<\/p>\n According to Judge Crichton, there’s a\u00a0real benefit to intensive alcohol monitoring. “It provides local authorities with a greater degree of confidence in allowing parents to have contact with children who are in care, and in one or two cases it has allowed children to go home to their parents on the basis that the local authority will know very quickly if the parent chooses to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n What do you think? While the US focuses a great deal of alcohol monitoring programs on drunk drivers, the UK’s early adoption of these technologies is heavily focused on other offenses, alcohol abuse,\u00a0and the resulting social issues. Do you think substance abuse monitoring is a good fit for family court programs?<\/p>\n![\"scram-service-provider-installation\"](\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/scram-service-provider-installation-1024x613.jpg\")