By Erin Hicks
Corrections1 Associate Editor
Continuous alcohol monitoring is a corrections officer’s best friend, if only for the fact it keeps offenders out of prison and jails and allows them to stay at their jobs and take care of their families.
G4S Justice Services showed off their latest device, CAM Patrol Plus at the American Correctional Association’s summer conference in Kissimmee, Fla. It’s the company’s first proprietary continuous alcohol monitoring device, and according to Kevin Banks, Marketing Manager for G4S, it’s different from the competition because it not only provides continuous alcohol monitoring, but also GPS location tracking.
Here’s how it works: CAM Patrol Plus monitors and identifies alcohol consumption on a continuous basis through comparison to a sober baseline first established at enrollment.
The bracelet monitors and measures ethanol gas emitted through the skin on a continuous basis. Every 15 minutes, measurements are taken and using Bluetooth technology, transmitted to the cellphone the offender has to carry with them at all times. Then, information is sent via wireless network to G4S monitoring centers.
“Some of our competitors’ devices require a home device that serves the same purpose as the phone in our case, but obviously when the person leaves the house if a home device is required they’re not being monitored,” said Banks. “Our device allows an offender to be monitored no matter where they are.”
If any alcohol is detected, the parole officer can choose to receive a text, email, or call. If the officer doesn’t want to be notified immediately, they can sign up to receive a report, or download the information themselves from the Web. For escalated offenses, officers can even opt to get a personal call from a G4S staff member.
The benefit to this device, Banks said, is if an offender decides to wander down to their local bar and have a few beers, once the alcohol gets in their system and is registered, G4S staff can call the officer and tell them exactly where the offender is, and the officer can show up at the bar and see the offender sitting there with a beer.
What’s to stop an offender from tampering with the device? G4S already thought about that and built in a handful of features, like infrared security on the bracelet strap that sends an alert if it’s been tampered with. An alert will also be sent out if the device is somehow broken or being stopped from sending data.
Both the cell phone and the device require charging and an alert will also be sent if either device is running out of juice. Banks said at first some offenders struggle with the basic requirements of the equipment, but most are willing to comply.
“This is an alternative to being behind bars, and for most people they recognize that so they do their part so they can maintain that freedom,” he said.
The cost of the service ranges from $5 to $10 a day depending on the quantity the agency is using. G4S monitors more than 30,000 offenders nationwide, and Banks said the feedback he’s been getting on CAM Patrol Plus has been good.
“Because it’s an alternative to jail, it’s a way for corrections officers to decrease their jail population while maintaining public safety,” Banks said.
G4S Justice Services provides advanced offender monitoring services to corrections and public safety agencies. With hundreds of electronic monitoring deployments across the country and around the world, G4S’s Patrol Suite® of electronic monitoring products and services meets a customer’s local requirements while leveraging the industry’s only fully-staffed, fully redundant monitoring centers. For more information, visit www.G4S.com/justice.