NEWS
Price of inmate bracelets to increase next week
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by Cara Harshman
Monday, January 28, 2008
Inmates from the Dane County Jail on the electronic monitoring diversion program will have to pay more for their freedom when the price of the Global Positioning System bracelets increases next week.
In an effort to fund the growing electronic monitoring program, the Dane County Board voted to increase the GPS bracelet fee from $15 to $20 per day at their last meeting.
The GPS bracelet program allows jail inmates to be released to seek work, education or childcare while under monitoring from Dane County Jail.
Currently, 72 inmates are participating on the electronic Custody Alternative Monitoring Program through the Dane County Jail, and eight inmates with alcohol and drug abuse problems are released on an intensive therapy program called Pathfinders.
Michelle Shelhamer, the sergeant assigned to supervise jail diversion programs, said the Dane County Jail needs to increase the price to pay for the increase in staff members it takes to monitor inmates in the bracelet program.
“Twenty dollars is actually well below what our budget analysis showed us,” Shelhamer said.
Screening inmates for eligibility for the electronic monitoring program is an intense, lengthy process, which requires many staff members, Shelhamer said. “There is more to the program than putting a bracelet on someone,” she added.
By mid-2008, Shelhamer said the jail hopes to have 200 inmates out on electronic monitoring programs to help relieve jail space.
“It’s a good program, and it actually gets peoples back into their families and reduces recidivism,” said Ashok Kumar, Dane County Board supervisor for the 5th district. “But what it does is actually deter people from wanting to be on the program.
“We charge them $20 per day, which is $600 per month, which is probably twice the rent most people who are on these programs pay,” Kumar said. “The Dane County government is making $50 per day off of every inmate.”
Shelhamer added that the increase also stems from Sheriff Dave Mahoney’s initiatives to establish a fund to aid inmates who cannot afford to pay $20 per day for the GPS bracelet but deserve to be released.
Currently, zero inmates qualify for indigency, Kumar said.
“It’s impossible to qualify,” Kumar said. “You have to be making next-to-no money and be living out of a homeless shelter just to maybe qualify for indigency.”
Josh Wescott, spokesperson for Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, said Falk included the increased bracelet price to $20 in her budget to ensure the program’s continuation.
“[Dane County] needed more money to meet the projected cost of the program,” Wescott added.
Kumar said the increase is immoral.
“The people that go through the jails are there because they couldn’t afford bail or child support — essentially, like 80 percent of them,” Kumar said. “What this does is take from the poorest members of our community, money that they just simply don’t have because that’s why they are still in jail in the first place.”
Anonymous (January 29, 2008 @ 9:34am):
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time!
Anonymous (January 29, 2008 @ 1:47pm):
That was a ridiculous statement. What time? They shouldn't have to PAY with their limited resources.
Anonymous (March 25, 2008 @ 8:50pm):
CATCH 22
I am currently on (EMP) electronic monitoring program. I am paying $20 dollars a day and had no problems paying for the program, as I was at that time working two jobs. The EMP notified me that I would have to get a letter from both of my jobs stating that they were aware I was being monitored. Needless to say after my jobs were aware of my current situation they laid me off. I asked if had anything to do with me being on EMP, and they said, "No, we are just making cuts." Now presently, since I no longer have a job I cannot pay $20 dollars a day for the EMP program. I have asked them three times to reavaluat my financial situation but they refuse to do so. I have sixty days left of EMP totalling $1200 dollars and I have no money to pay for it.
My Question: Aren't they breaking the law by not reavulating my financial situation?
They said: "If you cannot pay for the program we will terminate it."
Which means: I will return to jail and serve the same sentence that I would have, (because I was terminated from the program) as if I had never been enrolled in the program losing over the $2,000 dollars that I have already given to this messed up diabolical scheme. Why does the government screw over anyone who hasn't passed the BAR Exam.
If anyone has any words of wisdom, please reply to this post.
Thank you,
Anonymous
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