News Summary

URBANA — Champaign County Municipal Court offers some alcohol offenders a get-out-of-jail card, but it's far from free.

Recently contracting to use SCRAM — Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor — devices, the court provides some people convicted of low-level alcohol crimes, such as first-time driving under the influence, the option of wearing a monitor instead of staying in jail, Judge Susan Fornof-Lippencott said.

For $12.50 a day fee, the criminals have a tamper-proof monitor strapped to their ankle, which they must wear 24-hours a day throughout their sentence.

The ankle bracelets are similar to house arrest tracking systems but monitor alcohol consumption instead of an offender's whereabouts, said Justin Makosky, a house arrest supervisor for Ultimate Protection, Inc., the company that supplies SCRAM.

Sensors in the bracelet track the body's alcohol content through perspiration and store a reading about once an hour, he said.

Offenders schedule a daily check-in time when they must be close to a modem, hooked to a home phone line, that downloads and transfers the readings to an online system probation officers can monitor, Makosky explained.

"When they're wearing that, they're not to have any alcohol," Fornof-Lippencott said, adding that drinking alcohol is a probation violation.

Losing monitor privilege

A violator would lose the monitor privilege and serve his or her jail time instead, she said. About five people a month have used the system since the court started its contract, and no one has violated the terms.

The system is light weight and unobtrusive for most daily activities. The monitors are water resistant, making showers, not baths, OK. It is too low of a voltage to electrocute a wearer, said Chuck Burley, UPI vice president of sales.

Taxpayers don't foot the bill

The financial benefit of the system is another perk, Fornof-Lippencott said, because offenders pay the cost to use SCRAM, as opposed to taxpayers contributing to the $45 it costs per day per inmate in the Tri-County Regional Jail.

"It enables them to work and keep their jobs and support their families, and at the same time, conform their behavior and learn to live as a non-drinking individual," Fornof-Lippencott said.