The policy landscape for community corrections is rapidly changing. Supervision officers are being pressured to do their jobs faster, more efficiently, more effectively, and with fewer resources in order to keep up and adhere to new policies and policy changes. But how can corrections departments achieve this, all while implementing evidence-based practices into day-to-day decision making?
From raw GPS location points to client stop patterns, SCRAM Systems is constantly striving to develop new methods to distill the 1,440 location points generated per client per day into quantitative data for officers. SCRAM GPS® now has Pattern of Life (POL) mapping, designed to provide even more detail on how and where clients spend their time.
With so many different alcohol monitoring technologies available, it can be challenging to determine which device or method will provide the best results for each individual client. It’s important that courts and agencies learn about the differences between breath testing and continuous alcohol monitoring technology before adding them to a client’s supervision plan.
As jail depopulation continues to move inmates into community corrections programs, the demand has increased for these departments to effectively manage more clients with the same resources. Officers need smarter tools to navigate larger workloads and give clients the best opportunity to succeed in order to deliver on the promise that core corrections practices can impact recidivism.
As community supervision becomes modernized to fit today’s digital climate, probation and parole departments are relying on software and mobile apps to not only streamline client supervision but overcome challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. SCRAM TouchPoint® now has a way to integrate video chat functionality to help community corrections departments communicate with clients face-to-face, safely and effectively.
The Columbia County Probation Department supervises justice-involved individuals through drug and alcohol testing, referring them for counseling and treatment, and maintaining a close view of how well clients are complying with court-ordered probation. This mission, combined with the intrinsic challenges faced by members of the community, is what led the department to implement the latest technology to successfully accomplish the task.
Modern-day community supervision faces constant challenges—budget constraints, increasing officer responsibility, growing caseloads, and more. New technology is helping combat these challenges to make officers’ day-to-day tasks easier and more efficient and help probation and parole departments effectively integrate evidence-based practices (EBP) into existing policies and procedures to help clients succeed.
Alcohol use has been prevalent throughout history and that continues to be true today. Unfortunately, the adverse effects of alcohol use and abuse are well-known. The need for accurate and reliable methods to identify traces of alcohol in the body has led to the development of many technologies—each with its own features, benefits, and limitations.
For sexual assault or domestic violence victims, knowing their abuser is being tracked with a GPS bracelet may not be enough. Working in conjunction with SCRAM GPS, the new SCRAM Ally Victim Notification app alerts the victim and supervising authorities when a GPS client is in proximity to the victim’s phone, for added peace of mind.
With paper invoices, manual bookkeeping, and keeping records up-to-date, client billing and collections is often a time consuming and cumbersome process. But through the SCRAM Systems and AllPaid partnership, supervision agencies can easily generate invoice notifications using SCRAM TouchPoint’s Text-to-All feature—saving officers time while increasing collections.