Offenders to Be Monitored Electronically : Corrections: Six-month pilot program will only be open to individuals considered low security risks.

Ventura County corrections officials will soon begin using electronic bracelets to monitor a small group of offenders placed on house arrest for drunk driving and minor drug charges.

The six-month pilot project will only be open to individuals who are considered low security risks and who have already completed half their sentences.

As with the county’s work-furlough program, bracelet-wearers will be allowed to go to a job or school, but if they leave home at other times a radio signal will alert probation officers.

“We’re not going to put anyone who is a risk to the community on (the program),” said Cal Remington, deputy director of the Corrections Services Agency.

Throughout the state, counties have turned to electronic monitoring in recent years because of court orders to reduce jail overcrowding. It also is seen as a way to save money by reducing housing and supervision costs in jail.

But in Ventura County, the work-furlough program is running below capacity and a new jail under construction on Todd Road should relieve overcrowding when it opens next year.

Consequently, corrections officials in Ventura County say they view the bracelet program as an experiment rather than the solution to a crisis.

“We’re kind of in a nice position,” Remington said. “We have the luxury of taking it slow, as opposed to trying to get a bunch of people out of jail because there’s going to be a lawsuit.”

Municipal Judge Bruce A. Clarke, a member of the project’s oversight committee, said his colleagues are far from sold on the idea.

“The judges reluctantly agreed to do it,” he said. “No one agrees with the concept ‘Commit a crime, go to your room.’ ”

The program will be evaluated after six months, but it seems very unlikely to become a permanent option for offenders, Clarke said.

“As long as there’s space in work furlough, that’s the preferred punishment,” he said.

The pilot program, involving up to 50 offenders, could begin as early as April 11, said Don Krause, an administrator with the corrections agency. Only inmates already sentenced to work furlough and who volunteer for the program will be eligible.

The program will cost about $33,500, which will cover equipment rental, clerical work, cellular phones and the leasing of cars used by probation officers for home visits. That figure does not include the salaries of probation officers who will check up on each offender several times a week at their residences and jobs.

As with work furlough, offenders on house arrest will pay for part of the program. Corrections officials expect to recoup $3,000 to $10,000 over the six months from fees paid by offenders to enter the program. Individuals in work furlough now pay an average of $12 to $16 a day for the program, about the same amount they will be charged for the new program.

The house-arrest program relies on a bulky, tamper-proof bracelet worn around an offender’s ankle. Every 30 seconds or so, a receiver installed in the offender’s house sends a signal to the electronic bracelet. If the bracelet is out of range, an alarm is triggered and probation officers are notified of the violation.

In addition to wearing the bracelets, individuals on house arrest must allow probation officers to search their homes at any time. Their families must promise to keep alcohol, drugs and weapons out of the house. And they must keep telephone conversations shorter than 10 minutes because the electronic signals are sent via phone lines.

Breaking the rules can land an inmate back in work furlough or in County Jail, depending on the seriousness of the violation, Krause said.

And unlike inmates in County Jail, offenders on house arrest cannot be awarded “good time” and released early.

In Orange County--where an average of 160 people are on home detention--officials found that some inmates chose to stay in jail because of the “good time” credit and because they did not want to pay for the program.

Bob Swearingen, a probation officer in Orange County, said that although home detention may seem a lighter punishment, it is more challenging for some inmates.

“In a lot of ways they’re held more accountable,” he said. “They have the temptations and they have to resist them.”