North
Carolina Department of Correction news release
MARCH 16, 1998
State agencies work together to monitor
juveniles
Durham - With an electronic monitoring
device hidden beneath his sweat pants, a 15 year-old juvenile
offender is able to attend his classes at Brogden Middle School,
thanks to the Department of Correction.
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The black, waterproof ankle box is on
loan to the Administrative Office of the Courts, Juvenile
Services Division, and is keeping this young man out of
costly detention centers. AOC is
renting 100 field monitoring devices for $12 a month each
from the Department of Correction compared to the $126 a
day a juvenile detention center costs, potentially saving
state taxpayers more than a million dollars.
DOC’s Division of Adult Probation
and Parole had extra equipment and agreed to monitor the
offenders from Juvenile Services. DAPP’s monitoring
center currently tracks 1,200 offenders around the clock.
"This is an excellent example of
inter-agency cooperation saving manpower and
resources," Correction Secretary Mack Jarvis said.
"These monitoring devices will help ease the
overcrowding at juvenile detention centers and alleviate
the sheriff deputies driving children back and forth to
court."
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Several Probation and Parole employees per
shift use a computerized monitoring system to make sure
offenders, like the Durham student who was found to be delinquent
on drug charges, obeys his curfew. The second an offender breaks
the electronic field, the information is sent to a computer in
the probation and parole center. If a juvenile offender is in
violation, the child’s court counselor is notified.
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The Brogden Middle School student
knows that if he tries to take his ankle monitor off, he
gets sent back to the detention center where the doors
are locked and the rules are strict. In 1997, a total of 269 juveniles completed the
juvenile Electronic Monitoring Program for a total of
8,168 days. Of those 269, only 21% went on to detention.
In addition to renting the electronic
house arrest equipment and monitoring the juveniles, the
Division of Adult Probation and Parole provides drug
screening services to Juvenile Services. Last year, more
than 2,000 screens were provided to juvenile court
counselors.
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Future plans for electronic monitoring include
a domestic violence project in which victims will be included in
monitoring, and the possible use of satellite tracking of
offenders.
-pmc-