‘Electronic Leash’ Works, Report Says : Home Confinement of Offenders May Widen

Orange County’s “electronic leash” program to let low-risk offenders serve sentences at home rather than in jail, with their whereabouts electronically monitored, is working well and may be expanded, a report released Thursday said.

The report was by John L. Andrews and Dave DeYoung of the Probation Department, which runs the program. It said that only one of the 51 convicts placed in what is formally known as the supervised electronic confinement program has been kicked out of it, after the convict was found with a small amount of marijuana and beer.

The program began last November, letting men and women who work at their normal jobs during the day spend evenings and weekends confined to their homes, rather than jail.

The offenders wear non-removable bracelets, which they must insert into a telephone attachment whenever a probation officer or randomly programmed telephone calls their homes to check on their whereabouts.

The report said that 11 of the 51 participants were sent directly to the program, rather than spending some time in jail first, because of medical problems.

Of the 51, 65% said the program worked better than they expected, “and 100% believe the program is better than jail,” Andrews and DeYoung said.

The report said that judges were initially wary of the program but that “the most significant change” in recent months “has been court acceptance of the program.”

“Monitored home detention is an innovative approach which is gaining acceptance across the nation, offering relatively low-cost alternative detention to traditional jail custody commitments,” the report said. It noted that federal, state and city jail officials have contacted the Probation Department for information about the program.

It said the department will see if it can expand the program to include inmates in the jail medical ward and people who have violated probation.