Door Opened for Electronic House Arrest of 15 Inmates

Some inmates who now spend their nights in Los Angeles County Jail can look forward to finishing their sentences at home as part of a new pilot project that will place them under an electronic form of house arrest.

The Board of Supervisors on Thursday approved a pilot project that, if successful, could eventually allow 250 inmates on work furlough programs to serve out their jail sentences in their own homes.

“I think this could prove significant in helping alleviate jail overcrowding,” said John Scott, supervising deputy probation officer in charge of the county’s work furlough program.

Initial Participants

Scott and other officials at the county Probation Department will choose 15 inmates as the initial participants in what has been dubbed the Electronic Home Detention Project, a six-month pilot program that will require the inmates to wear radio transmitting devices strapped to their ankles.

To monitor the inmates, the 2-inch-by-2-inch transmitter will emit a steady stream of signals to a receiving device on the inmate’s home telephone, Scott said. If an inmate strays beyond 150 feet from the receiving device, the transmissions will stop and a central computer will be alerted.

The practice of electronic surveillance is similar to the tactic already used to guard some individuals on probation, including several Los Angeles slumlords who were ordered by judges to remain in the run-down buildings they owned.

Officials said the pilot project marks the county’s first effort to use electronic monitoring devices on jail inmates.

“The inmates we’ll choose for the pilot project are already a part of our work furlough program who have already completed two-thirds of their sentence,” Scott said. “They are low-risk offenders who have shown they can be trusted.”

Under the county’s work furlough program, inmates now go to their regular jobs during the day and spend nights in County Jail. For that privilege, they pay the county $30 a day. To participate in the electronic home detention project, inmates will pay a maximum of $15 a day.

“What we hope to find out from the pilot project is what this is really going to cost, what kind of staff we’ll need to handle the entire program and how effective this form of work furlough is,” said Scott, who added that officials hope to eventually place 200 to 250 inmates in the program.

With the board’s 3-0 vote, Los Angeles joins a number of counties, including Orange and San Diego, that are already using the electronic devices on work furlough inmates.

Only 18 Violations

Al Garcia, supervising probation officer in charge of Orange County’s Supervised Electronic Confinement program, said 607 inmates were in the program last year. Only 18 violations were reported, he said, most involving “technical” problems such as inmates allowing alcohol in the home, a restriction that Los Angeles County will also include.

Only one inmate walked away from his house while under electronic detention, Garcia said, and that escapee returned 24 hours later.

“We’re happy with the program and we’re continuing with it,” Garcia said. “It’s still in operation and we think we have a pretty successful program.”