By Parole Officer J
A buddy of mine (Rob) got sentenced to one year of house arrest. I tried to talk him into letting me go to the PO (Parole Officer) as him and get the ankle monitor locked on me instead of him. He thought it was hilarious, and I begged him to let me do it.
Rob had a cheap ankle monitor, in my opinion. It had a base station with a small battery and needed to be hooked up to a phone line and power cord. It created a zone around his house, and if he left the zone it would send an alert. Once he left the zone it didn’t know anything about his location. And the zone was small enough when he mowed the yard he had to call the PO and tell him he was starting to mow and call back when he finished. Otherwise he would show up as leaving his home and he would get violated (parole violation), which could send him back to jail.
Rob had rules to his house arrest. He had to schedule any time away from home in advance. And the requests had to be approved. He was given 3 hours on Saturdays to go shopping. Since his didn’t track locations once he left home, he could go anywhere. But he had to be home by 3 p.m. Have a special family event planned like a birthday? He might get approved to go for an hour or two, including travel time! Or the request might be denied, the PO didn’t need to give reasons for denying a request.
Dave had a huge ankle monitor. There was a large box on one side of his ankle and a smaller box on the other side, connected by the strap. This was a SCRAM monitor. He could come and go as he pleased, but every 24 hours he had to plug into the base station for it to mark him as being in compliance (with the rules of his house arrest) and transmit its report. This was also how it charged. He said if he wants to sleep over with someone he has to take the base station along and make sure his date has an analog phone jack and not one of the digital ones on a cable modem. The SCRAM units monitor your sweat and detect alcohol. Good for those with drinking offenses.
And some lucky guys got both! A SCRAM on one leg and a home confinement one like Rob’s on the other.
Oscar Pistorius from South Africa would have had house arrest during his trial, but the devices they use in South Africa didn’t have straps small enough for his wrist and he could have just slipped it off. Oscar spent his time before and during the trial in jail. In America we lock these on children and the straps come in shorter, child-friendly sizes. It’s not unheard of to see a high school student on the football field with an ankle monitor locked on his leg.
Ankle monitors now have GPS and cellular technology. The GPS tracks where you are, and if the GPS coordinates change more than a certain amount it reports the change to the monitoring service. “Geo fences” can be set up where entry into or exit from the fenced area triggers an alert. Some of them also have a base station like Rob’s did, but it’s more like a Wi-Fi system. If you are in range of the Wi-Fi signal, the GPS turns off to save battery life. Leave the home zone, and the GPS turns on and reports your movements. And once you are moving it reports your location every so many minutes along with your speed. The more often it reports your movements, the more accurate the map of where you have been will be and the faster the battery drains.
After years of drooling over the idea of being on house arrest, I finally bought one. I almost bought it in January of this year (2020), but everyone went into lockdown for three months. It would have provided proof that I didn’t go out during lockdown, but it would have been boring.
The unit I bought is a simple GPS ankle monitor, and I subscribed to the six-month monitoring period. Once my order was shipped I got the information about how to view the reports. I started to track my ankle monitor as it traveled the country to my house. If I’d known I could track this, I’d have paid for faster shipping. Ground UPS meant that the battery died after 2 days of travel. Now I was left with just the UPS tracking info, such a letdown after watching the driver make other stops delivering packages before my ankle monitor was loaded on a train in California.
When my ankle monitor arrived I was quick to unpack it and start charging it. It didn’t take long to get the charge up enough to report in. I had it sitting on my desk behind the monitors and by the window to make sure it was able to get a good GPS signal.
The strong GPS signal bothered me, my Garmin would get lost in the canyons of a big city with tall buildings and they advised me to put it where it had a clear view of the sky to get a good GPS signal. Yes I do sometimes get odd GPS locations around the house, but they aren’t as bad as the Garmin was in downtown traffic. And for the most part, when it sends an update in the location it does match where I am (or was).
Some basic features that all ankle monitors should have include a tamper alert, typically this is limited to cutting the strap to remove the monitor. Low battery indicator, although this is just sent to the PO and there often isn’t any battery level on the monitor for the parolee to check. An SOS Button is also on most monitors, it lets the parolee send a signal to the PO indicating the date and time, the address and a link to a map that shows the SOS location. No additional information is sent, it’s up to the PO to contact the parolee and find out the nature of the emergency. There is often a “call” button. Most GPS units are equipped with a speaker and microphone that allow two-way communication. Most services charge extra for this service. It can be initiated by the parolee by him pressing the call button and starting two-way communication, or it can be started by the PO for one- or two-way communication. If one-way communication is initiated the PO can listen in on the parolee without his knowledge. The sound quality is muffled by the clothing worn by the parolee and the location of the monitor being on the ankle. My service plan doesn’t include this feature, so I can’t give any real-life results. Many devices advertise a micro SD card slot for extra storage, the company I bought mine from didn’t seem to know anything about this feature. It is supposed to store GPS coordinates, so if the monitor is unable to make its scheduled location update it will be saved and transmitted when cellular service returns. Some ankle monitors have a power button. When the monitor is locked on the power is always on. The power button will only turn the device off if it’s unlocked (not on an ankle).
A common weakness is charging! All ankle monitors claim to be waterproof, the parolee must shower. But they aren’t “swim proof.” How much water will damage the ankle monitor? Where is the most likely place for water to enter? The charging port. Other possible leak areas are the microphone and speaker. Why can’t they incorporate wireless charging? Even Apple has added this feature to its phones (and Android phones have had it for some time). Expense. The wireless chargers for phones are more expensive. Who wants to spend more money on house arrest equipment for a parolee? Well, other than me? I have heard some of the new units do support wireless charging. At least my charging cable has a USB-type plug on one end. The connector on the ankle monitor is still a strange proprietary connector. But the USB port in my car didn’t seem to charge it this morning.
The primary use of the GPS ankle monitors are to make sure the parolee stays in their designated locations at the designated times. This is where geo fences come into play. A geo fence is a location defined by the PO, and notifications can be set up to notify every time the parolee enters, leaves (or both enters and leaves) this location. Some services may also have a one-time use geo fence, where once it has been entered it will no longer alert when the parolee enters this location. An important component of the GPS reporting is how often does the unit report its location? Too often and battery life will suffer, too long and location information could be lost.
Without a willing volunteer, I’ve been monitoring myself for several weeks now and setting up alerts for locations I frequent. Since I’m the account owner, I get the notifications. Depending on the service used, you can modify the recipients of the notifications.
Be careful about locking an ankle monitor on someone! This could be considered stalking. Make sure you and the parolee are on the same page when it comes to privacy and consent.
Initially, my ankle monitor was set up to report in every 10 minutes. In the morning as I worked around the house it would eventually notice I’d moved from one end of the house to another. Sometimes it reports these events, sometimes not. My office and bathroom are at opposite ends of the house. If I happen to be in the bathroom when it’s supposed to report, it notes my location and at the next reporting interval it reports I returned to my office. If my bathroom break is between reporting periods it probably won’t show this movement. If the ankle monitor detects a significant location change in a short period of time it will start sending updates every reporting interval.
I experimented. I dropped my husband off somewhere and then went to do a quick errand. The errand was so close and so fast it detected I left the place I dropped my husband off but it didn’t record where I went. The data shows I went about a half mile east and then went back. But exactly where, it didn’t know. Perhaps the micro SD card would have fixed this problem. Changing the reporting interval would also help catch these quick movements. I updated the reporting interval to five minutes and haven’t noticed a significant change in battery life, but I have noticed more detail in the travel maps.
I can also display a travel log for each day and summary report by month. The daily travel log shows how long I was at a location and what time I left this location. It also shows arrival at my next location, it’s distance from the previous stop, and the average and maximum speeds between stops. I’m not sure how long I need to be stopped at a location for it to determine this was a destination, but I think it’s probably 15 minutes.
Before you start tracking a parolee, make sure you understand how the ankle monitor works and how the tracking service features work. This is why I’m wearing mine for this training experience. If you jump right in to putting an ankle monitor on a parolee, make sure you don’t send him back to jail because you didn’t have the device and alerts set up correctly. When actions have consequences for the parolee, make sure he knows in advance what the specific rules of parole are and what is and isn’t allowed.
Here’s where it gets interesting: What are the rules of being on house arrest? This really depends on what the parolee agrees to. The possibilities are endless. They have to be flexible enough to allow some liberty and the ability to work and make a living. But it should also have some restrictions that are slightly annoying and force the parolee to make choices. Will they follow the rules or pay the consequences?
Let’s look at a common set of rules and fees for the parolee.
We will start off with a $100 setup fee and a monthly fee of $50.
Cutting off the ankle monitor is a $70 fee and requires notification by phone or text as soon as possible to explain the situation. It often results in the offender being returned to jail once the police apprehend him.
Lost charger replacement fee is $50.
Daily visits to get charged up while waiting for replacement charger to arrive $5/day. Parolee pays expedited shipping fees if they want the replay charger to arrive faster. It’s annoying having to have a parolee sit in my office and charge for 2 hours a day. And if two of them are missing their charger cable they have to be scheduled, as I only keep one spare charging cable in the office.
Daily curfew. Unless their situation is different, they are expected home at 9:30 p.m. and should not leave until 6:30 a.m. I don’t like to alter curfew on a weekend, it makes my job more difficult to track who has what curfew on which days. Unless it’s a job schedule, all parolees follow this curfew.
If they don’t have a job, they are required to stay home unless they have a scheduled (and approved) out-of-home appointment. Typically educational, medical, social service or community service and religious events are approved.
I do need to consider the parolee’s schedule. Let’s say he works at the same location every day and it’s 10 miles round trip. I’ll allocate 15 to 20 miles per day. And realistic travel time to depart home and arrive at their work location. If he travels more than that many miles in a day, he may be up to no good. This means I may have to make a surprise visit and find out where he is going.
I had one parolee who was a jogger. After his 12-mile commute he would go for a jog in the evening of 3-5 miles. This often put him over his mileage limit for the day. We eventually settled on a specific jogging path he had to use or he had to run around the block to get his distance in for the day. He tried going for a Saturday bike ride around the lake (a 10-mile trip) and wondered why I called him about his daily mileage. Plus he was scheduled to be sitting at home at that time of the day. I almost violated him back to jail for that.
Maybe on a weekend I’ll give this parolee 30 miles of travel, but since it’s not a workday I will still limit him to only 3 hours of time away from home. But he would have more flexibility about when he is away from the house.
I also give them speed limits. Anyone going more than 65 mph (max speed or average speed) means I have to give him a warning. I don’t care if he is driving or the passenger in the vehicle. If he has to explain to friends why he can’t be in a car going faster than the law allows, that’s just one part of his court-mandated punishment.
I do have the authority to place financial penalties on the mileage, speed, time/location and curfew limits. I don’t often do this, because for many of them it’s hard enough getting a job and staying out of jail. But for some of them, financial cost is the only way to make them live up to their house arrest agreement. And as I remind all of them, they can decide at any time to stop the house arrest program and return to jail for the remainder of their sentence. I’ve actually had a few do it over the past 5 years.
The author currently has the ability to accept new parolees. He should live within a 2-hour drive of Pittsburgh PA and be willing to negotiate the rules of his parole. Monthly in-person visits with the parole officer (possibly more) will be required. He will be required to pay the $100 setup fee and $50 monthly monitoring fee. Details provided upon request of the inmate wishing to transfer to house arrest. He must have a good conduct report from the warden.
Contact Parole Officer J at paroleofficerj@gmail.com.
