Page 27 - Security Today, January/February 2021

“Unfortunately, lengthy procurement processes for new technologies and the overshadowing legacy processes and technologies in place are holding back this much-needed digital shift.”
defendants spend checking in each month. At an average of two check-ins per month, offenders currently sacrifice 5 working hours every month to satisfy their court-mandated check-ins, resulting in an average of 220 working hours lost over the course of their probation period.1 However, with a cloud-based mobile app, check-ins can take just minutes.
Beyond just the time cost, remote monitoring software can reduce the financial burden of community supervision programs on defendants by nearly 94%, as the technology is significantly more cost-effective than ankle monitors.
“Remote monitoring software has been an invaluable tool for us, and it provides cost-saving benefits for our employees. If it weren’t for this tracking technology, I would have had to hire more personnel,” said Darcy Hasty, Director of Indigent Defense and Pre-Trial Services for Medina County, Texas, which has been using a cloud-based technology to streamline the check-in process for the county’s Pre-Trial services and cut costs for both the county and the defendants.
The benefits of these technologies are not just limited to savings though, and by not using them the criminal justice system
is also missing out on a wealth of knowledge that advanced systems can provide. For example, cloud-based monitoring software can provide information about check-in reports, stored GPS locations, and custom report schedules, which supervisors and judges can use to not just determine if an offender is meeting his or her court-mandated requirements but also to determine broader behavior patterns and trends.
“These solutions allow us to use the tool as a curfew check, which is huge with some of our judges who want to make sure our defendants are home by certain hours. The software has also been particularly beneficial during the pandemic, which allowed me to rotate my staff safely and keep our office functioning, all while honoring court orders,” added Hasty.
THE TIME FOR CHANGE IS NOW
As mentioned before, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the “this is how we’ve always done things here” way of thinking will no longer cut it and that it is time for the criminal justice system to begin adopting new technologies more aggressively.
The good news is that even though these solutions might seem dramatic, they are not. As has been demonstrated by example of remote monitoring, even a small implementation such as this technology is already having a huge impact in
many areas of the country.
Enrique Pavlioglou is the CEO of Checkups.
1 These hours were calculated based on statistics provided by the U.S. Bureau of Justice and U.S. Bureau of Labor.
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