Restrained by Sensors : Some Convicts Will Serve Their Sentences at Home

In an experiment being tried here for the first time in California, some convicted criminals soon will be doing their time at home, restrained not by bars or shackles but by electronic sensors.

The yearlong experiment, set to begin July 1, is being touted as one way to free precious jail space that San Diego County needs for violent and hardened criminals.

San Diego County supervisors unanimously approved the idea Tuesday with little discussion.

Cecil Steppe, the county’s chief probation officer, will select 50 prisoners from the county’s short-term work furlough program as the first participants. These inmates, who work regular jobs during the day, will be allowed to go home, rather than to the county’s work furlough center, at night.

The inmates will wear bracelets on their wrists or legs. The bracelets will hold small transmitters that emit an inaudible signal, which will be picked up by a receiver attached to the inmate’s telephone.

Any time the inmate strays farther than 150 feet from the receiver without the county’s permission, the absence will be noted on a computer. The system will also be able to detect any tampering with the household equipment, Steppe said.

Steppe said the home-custody program will be open only to work furlough participants who have no recent history of violence or escape. Child molesters, rapists and drug pushers will be excluded from the program.

The inmates will be sentenced to their homes for no more than 90 days. Steppe said studies in other states have shown that most people cannot resist for a longer period the temptations to leave home.

“In some ways this can be tougher than being in jail,” Steppe said. “You come home and your kids beg you to go to the park or to get some ice cream. You’re not free to do that.”

The inmates will be monitored by probation workers, who will check the computer printouts regularly and also ensure that participants report to their jobs as scheduled. The inmates will also be subject to random searches and drug and alcohol testing.

Any inmate caught violating the terms of the program will be returned to work furlough, an honor camp or county jail, Steppe said.

The cost of the equipment, the salaries of two probation workers and administration costs will be met by a $15-per-day fee on the participants, the same amount they now pay to be in the work furlough program. Steppe said he expects those costs to be about $131,000 during the experiment.

Steppe is supposed to give the Board of Supervisors an evaluation of the program after six months and another after one year.

The San Diego experiment will be the first use of such technology in California, according to Jerry Buck, president of the state association of chief probation officers.

Steppe said electronic surveillance has been tried with success in a handful of counties across the nation, including Palm Beach County, Florida, and Clackamas and Linn counties in Oregon.