The Vigo County Community Corrections Department is switching to an all-cellular telephone-based system for ankle bracelet monitoring devices worn by offenders serving court-ordered home detentions.
The digital system will allow easier access to the home detention monitoring program by the majority of offenders, Community Corrections Director Bill Watson said.
“People who are in those situations, a lot have outstanding phone bills and cannot get a land line. They can get a pay-as-you-go device, and they have those cell phones. Most people just operate off a cell phone now. Very few people have a land line phone so it just makes it easier for some offenders to get on home detention that struggle with it now,” Watson said.
Offenders now will not have to pay for a land line to be installed in their home, Watson added. “It is very hard and time consuming to get a land line installed. And if they get behind on a phone bill, which is a common practice with many because their income is limited, the phone gets shut off. If we can’t monitor them, they end up going back to jail,” Watson said. “This will eliminate some of those problems.”
The Vigo County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a contract revision with Boulder, Colo.-based BI Inc., part of the GEO Group. The contract revision raises the cost to offenders for the devices by $1. Offenders living in Vigo County will now pay $13 per day for the digital device while on home detention, while those out of county will pay $14 per day.
The county will receive 120 of the digital cell devices, with 15 of those set aside as spare units.