The Fight Against Crime: Notes Froom The Battlefront : Kept at Home by an Unpaid Debt to Society

You don’t notice the electronic monitoring device attached to Amy’s ankle until she walks up a set of stairs.

“I try to be careful about that,” says the trim 21-year-old, quickly tugging down on a pant leg so that it hides the anklet--a 2-inch-square, black box secured by a tight plastic band.

It’s not a fashion accessory.

Amy is one of the approximately 100 convicted felons in the San Fernando Valley area enrolled in the Los Angeles County Electronic Monitoring Service house arrest program. In lieu of prison time, these people have agreed not to leave their homes except for strictly defined, court-approved activities.

The anklet alerts a monitoring service if they go out of their allowed 150-foot range or if they don’t arrive home at the appointed time from an authorized activity.

Amy has been wearing the anklet continuously--except for a few, fondly remembered minutes when the device had to be removed for adjustments--since Jan. 28.

“I’ve kinda gotten used to it being there,” she says with a laugh, looking out her second-floor window on a pleasant, tree-lined street in Sherman Oaks where an abundance of blue agapanthus is in bloom.

“It certainly changes your life.”

Judging from the numerous photographs on the walls of her orderly one-bedroom apartment, Amy had a very different life before the anklet was snapped into place. There are pictures of her with friends at parties. There are pictures of her on outings with her baby boy and a posed studio shot showing her carefully made up and wearing a party dress.

On one wall was also a framed letter from the Young Miss of America beauty pageant, inviting her to be a contestant.

“I never entered, but I could have,” Amy says.

All that was before she got caught last year embezzling from the physician for whom she worked as a secretary.

“At first I did it to help support him,” she says, pointing to her boy, now 17 months old, who was joyfully exploring his mom’s jewelry boxes. “But then I also got carried away.”

Amy pleaded no contest to stealing about $13,000, for which she has to pay restitution. The judge also sentenced her to five years probation and either six months in jail or nine months house arrest.

“If I would have gone to jail I probably would have been out in three months,” Amy says, “but I did not want to go to jail, and I had to take care of the baby.”

There is no time off for good behavior in the house arrest program. Amy will be wearing the anklet until Oct. 24.

On most days, she and her son see no one else. Amy is estranged from the boy’s father and only recently moved from Calabasas (the move, of course, had to be arranged with her monitoring service). She has not told her new landlord she is on the program.

“I’m a good tenant and I didn’t want him to think I might not be,” she says. “I’m neat and clean, and I’m always here.”

She also has not told most of her old friends. “People look at you different, I think, if they know,” she said. “Besides, who would want me as a friend?

“I can’t go out anywhere.”

Except for her mother, who lives in Northern California, the adults to whom she feels closest at the moment are her counselors at the monitoring service. “I love them,” Amy said. “If they had been cold or not understanding, I don’t think I could have gotten through this.”

Amy goes to the service, Wackenhut Monitoring Systems in Panorama City, every two weeks to check in and to hand over receipts to show she has spent her time “outside” in approved activities.

“Amy is one of our ideal clients,” said counselor Kathy Stringer. “She brings in every little receipt, even parking stickers, to show she is following the rules.

“She brings her son in with her, and we like that.”

Amy is not sure what she will do with her life when the anklet comes off. “I think about beauty school,” she says. “But maybe I’ll just go back to secretarial.”

In the meantime, she plays with her son, sews curtains and watches a lot of TV.

“I love the talk shows. Oprah and Sally are my favorites,” she says, getting ready to turn on Oprah. “You can learn a lot from talk shows about what’s going on out there.”