County to use 2nd monitor
The Butler County Probation Department is starting a new program to ensure those under its supervision stay off alcohol.
The department later this year will start using hand-held devices to monitor alcohol intake through scheduled breath tests, which will occur at least once daily.
The people monitored either are serving probation or have conditions set on their parole.
Tom Holman, deputy court administrator, said the device employs facial recognition technology to ensure the defendant is the person breathing into the cell-phone shaped device.
Holman said the device is a step down from the ankle bracelet using transdermal alcohol sensing technology along with being an alternative type of monitoring.
“Every case will be judged on its own merits,” he said.
The ankle bracelet detects alcohol through physical contact with the person’s ankle.
“It reads it off your skin,” Holman said.
The hand-held device costs the county less. The county pays SCRAM Systems $15 for each day for an ankle monitor while SCRAM’s daily fee for the breath tester is $7.
While the defendants are responsible for reimbursing the cost to the county, about 5 percent of that money is outstanding.
When SCRAM is alerted to a defendant’s alcohol consumption, the company notifies the on-call probation officer.
As of Thursday, the county has 15 people being monitored under the SCRAM program.
The county commissioners Wednesday approved the contract amendment with SCRAM.
