McHenry County Probation Department using anklet to
monitor alcohol use in high-risk offenders
Published: Sunday, April 10, 2016 12:03 a.m. CDT • Updated: Monday, April 11, 2016 12:16 a.m. CDT
By JORDYN REILAND - [email protected]
WOODSTOCK – The McHenry County Probation and Court Services department has a new tool to supervise its high-risk
alcohol offenders.
The department partnered with Alcohol Monitors of Illinois to implement the technology in January.
SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring, or SCRAM CAM, is an anklet worn 24/7 to monitor potential alcohol use. The
anklet tests the participant every 30 minutes to measure for alcohol consumption through their perspiration.
Roger Bacon, chief managing probation officer, said two participants have been involved in the program since its
inception.
Although the initial numbers have been small, the implementation process has gone well, he said.
Bacon said the probation officer decides who will participate following a risk assessment.
The primary target is high-risk DUI offenders, as well as alcohol-involved domestic violence cases and other crimes where
drinking was a primary factor.
“We’re really hoping to have better outcomes with high-risk people,” Bacon said.
Unlike many other counties in the state, the anklet will not be implemented in a courtroom or sentencing setting.
The probation department’s scope is purposely narrow so they are able to see long-term change from the high-risk
offenders.
SCRAM CAM, which officially launched in the U.S. in 2003, has monitored nearly 9,000 offenders in Illinois. Lake, Kane,
Will and DuPage counties also use the technology.
“For us, we want to narrow it down for the people that it’ll have the biggest impact on,” said Walt Pesterfield, director of
probation and court services.
Offenders who participate in the program pay $7.50 a day for the monitoring, with a sliding-fee scale available for those
who are indigent or cannot afford to pay.
Pesterfield said the goal in implementing this technology is to see long-term change from high-risk offenders.
“The ultimate goal for us is to have the offender have long-term change so when they are off probation they don’t go
back to the same behaviors,” he said.
http://www.nwherald.com/2016/04/08/mchenry-county-probation-department-using-anklet-to-monitor-alcohol-use-in-high-risk-offenders/ae4m536/
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