Jail overcrowding is a serious issue in the U.S., imprisoning more people than any other nation in the world. With 60% of jail inmates awaiting deposition and not actually serving time for a conviction, sheriffs programs that rely on alcohol monitoring technology to oversee clients in lieu of incarceration are becoming more prevalent throughout the states.
According to NHTSA, a person with one or more prior DUI/DWI offenses is 4.1x more likely to be involved in a fatal car crash, making repeat alcohol clients dangerous to a community. But, courts and agencies across the country are using alcohol monitoring technologies to create sustainable, outcome-driven programs to support long-term behavior change in repeat alcohol clients.
Whether you live on the East Coast, West Coast, or somewhere in between, if you get behind the wheel after drinking you will face the consequences and may even end up with a DUI on your record. But, DUI laws and penalties are not country-wide. In fact, many aspects of these laws vary greatly from state to state and may even be specific to a single state.
With the help of SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring® (SCRAM CAM®), SCRAM Remote Breath®, and a variety of other alcohol monitoring technologies, the San Joaquin DUI Monitoring Court (SJDMC) has reduced annual DUI arrests by 66% since 2008.
With nearly 105 participants at any given time, Cascade County’s drug treatment courts are the largest in Montana. Each has available to them SCRAM Systems’ alcohol and location monitoring technologies—SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring® (SCRAM CAM®), SCRAM Remote Breath®, and SCRAM GPS®—to ensure cooperation and true behavior change throughout the individual’s rehabilitative process.
Depending on where your location monitoring program and clients are located, one mobile network provider may offer superior coverage over another. And better coverage not only reduces the potential for location failure alerts but can also improve the battery life of a GPS device.
A recently released study suggests that SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring® (SCRAM CAM®) can support better outcomes among individuals in voluntary alcohol treatment programs. The conclusion: a large majority of the study’s participants felt SCRAM CAM helped them reduce or stop drinking with little or no interference with their daily lives.
Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the U.S. As a result, jail overcrowding has become a serious issue throughout the state, burdening local court systems and communities. But one parish is offering a solution—utilizing SCRAM Systems’ state-of-the-art alcohol monitoring technologies to focus on comprehensive rehabilitation as part of a pretrial diversion program.
With almost 1,800 DUI arrests in 2016 alone, Lake County has the fourth highest rate of drunk driving in Illinois. To help combat this issue, the County recently launched a new alcohol monitoring program to ensure these types of individuals stay sober.
Funding challenges are usually the main reason courts and jurisdictions hesitate to add intensive alcohol and location monitoring into their programs. However, daily monitoring fees are a fraction of the cost of incarceration and electronic monitoring can help improve program and client outcomes and save money over time.