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Information On House Arrest Monitoring Systems

By James Wagner


Punishment of offenders in the society is shifting from the use of incarceration as the primary form of punishment. Cheaper alternatives such as house arrest are being researched and adopted as alternatives to incarceration, especially in countries where prison populations are very high. Technological advancements have made house arrest monitoring much easier as opposed to when it was the most challenging part of alternative programs. Today, law enforcement officers do not have to worry about offenders violating geographical provisions because such violations can be seen from a computer quite easily.

Many electronic devices have been invented to monitor the movement of offenders until they have successfully completed their punishment. The devices are used on adults as well as juveniles. The efficiency of electronic devices used to monitor the movement of offenders placed under house arrest is very high today. They indicate where the offender is located at any specific time. Geographical violations can be tracked throughout.

One example of an electronic house arrest monitor is called an ankle monitor. This device is also called a tether or an ankle bracelet. It is a small homing device that individuals on parole or under home arrest are required to wear at all times. The device transmits a radio frequency signal to a receiver indicating information about its location and other kinds of information.

Moving outside a specified geographical region triggers the device to transmit a radio frequency signal to a receiver. Receivers are usually other computers owned by law enforcement agencies or contractors that perform monitoring on behalf of the government. Ankle monitors have tamper proof designs. This makes them to transmit a signal to the receiver when one tries to remove them.

The transmission of the radio frequency signal by the device to the recipient computer relies on either a cellular or land-line. The receiver receives the signal in the form of an alert message. Ankle monitors have close GPS-based cousins that require wearers to bear cell phones for transmission of signals from the ankle units. In some designs, the ankle unit incorporates both functions.

Electronic monitoring originated from a small team of researchers at Harvard University in the 1960s. The first judicially sanctioned program to employ the technology started in 1983 in New Mexico. Production was done by someone named Michael Goss. After a period of six years, there were a minimum of six producers involved in commercial productions of the systems. Statistics indicate that 130, 000 were under deployment in the United States in 2006.

Uncertainty exists in the level of effectiveness of electronic monitoring devices in crime reduction. This is the case due to the fact that parole violators are always preparing to commit more serious crimes. The main reason why the devices were adopted was to deter criminal behavior. However, research has indicated that this strategy is not different from other diversion programs.

These devices are waterproof in order to prevent them from being damaged by water. They are small and light to avoid being inconvenient to wearers. Most of them come with a black casing.




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