Solutions for Sheriffs

Sheriffs can use SCRAM to help ease jail overcrowding, save money, and protect the public.

As state and county budgets continue to tighten in our declining economy—while jail overcrowding keeps rising—sheriffs and jail administrators like yourself are tasked with this challenge: How do you manage more offenders with increasingly limited space and money, while protecting your community?

Most jurisdictions simply can't afford to continue building bigger brick and mortar jails to keep up with the demand for more space. But they also don’t want to send "at risk" criminals back on the streets just because they have no room to house them.

Another cost component that likely affects you is the amount of time and resources it takes to transport and process offenders into the system. As gas prices continue to rise—and personnel resources become more constrained – the administrative costs of dealing with offenders is also a huge drain on your budget.

Considering that many offenders in your jails were drinking at the time of their offense, and that 1.5 million people are arrested annually for DWI, alcohol misuse is a common thread among many of your inmates. And you're likely seeing the same people over and over again, because incarceration is not a permanent solution to getting them to stop drinking.

This is why SCRAM is a viable solution for sheriffs and jail administrators.

SCRAM continuously monitors offenders for alcohol consumption, requires no work on your part, and provides you with reports only on those who need your immediate attention. Because it tests for alcohol every thirty minutes around the clock, SCRAM makes it very difficult for offenders to drink undetected, like they could with a blood or breath test.

SCRAM enables sheriffs to:

• Effectively and remotely monitor those offenders who are not a threat to the community and can be released under electronic supervision
• Provide a bridge to help offenders re-enter the community while protecting the public
• Help offenders get sober, be accountable for their actions, and get the help they need to break the "revolving door" pattern in your system
• Dramatically reduce the daily cost of supervising offenders (approx. $60 for jail vs. $12 for SCRAM)