Introduction Letter to Judge

 

                                                       

Your Honor, 

When an entire community is counting on you to safeguard its well-being while budgets and jail space cause you to consider alternatives to incarceration—staying tough on crime can require innovation. Thinking outside-of-the box does not mean losing focus on public safety.

Given the strong link between alcohol and crime, one technology stands alone. 

SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring™ (CAM™) provides automated, passive, 24/7 alcohol testing every 30 minutes. The technology has been worn on over 500,000 offenders dealing with various sobriety issues. To date, 2000 courts have implemented SCRAM CAM programs. SCRAM CAM as a tool has proven success.

According to research and data from more than 500,000 clients monitored, a SCRAM CAM program can provide your jurisdiction with: 

•       Unparalleled community accountability. On any given day, 99.4% of SCRAM CAM offenders are completely sober and compliant. This means no drinking, alcohol re-offending, or tampering. 

•       Independently tested and court-validated results. SCRAM CAM has met Frye and Daubert standards of admissibility on the state appellate level. 

•       Court Support—if SCRAM CAM confirms a violation, we stand by it 100% and provide court testimony at any level required. 

•       As much as a 45% reduction in recidivism for hardcore alcohol offenders who completed SCRAM CAM monitoring (NCSC 2008, NDCI 2009). 

Additional supervision through optional House Arrest RF and GPS 

SCRAM CAM also offers the option to add RF/House Arrest supervision, allowing you to limit activities during prime drinking times. GPS, as an additional option is also available. Both devices are increasingly being utilized in bond reduction matters. A secured bond married to an anklet offers a much higher level of compliance.

SCRAM Systems technologies are being used in a variety of applications, from pre-trial monitoring to post-trial adjudication and beyond. The possibilities are limitless. I welcome the opportunity to further discuss how SCRAM Systems can offer additional options for your courtroom. For your convenience, my contact information is enclosed. 

Sincerely,   

Mark Cartret, CEO 

Continuous Alcohol Monitoring, LLC 

A SCRAM Systems Master Partner 

o. 800-464-5917 – c. 919-614-6689mark@scramsystemsnc.com

www.continuousalcoholmonitoring.com                               www.scramsystemsnc.com

Can I Fool This Tell-All Alcohol Monitor?

By Steve Hendrix

Washington Post Staff Writer 

My day with the unsleeping snitch began one afternoon at a nondescript building next to the Loudoun County Courthouse in Leesburg. Alex Reid, kneeling like a shoe salesman, tugged a rubber strap around my ankle until a black plastic box sat snugly against my leg.

"How does that feel?" he asked.

Not too good, actually. The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAM, is about the size of a bulky tape measure and chafed against my anklebone from the start. By the end of a day that would include a four-mile run and a long walk with the dog, it would feel like a leg iron.

Constant vigilance hurts.

Alcohol Monitoring Systems, the company that provides Loudoun with devices to monitor alcohol levels in drunken-driving violators, agreed to let me wear one of its smart shackles to experience what life is like when your drinking habits are under ceaseless surveillance. They invited me to test the technology as their regular clients use it, with exercise, bathing, spilled substances and, of course, a few cocktails.

It only took a few minutes for Reid to fit the strap, tighten two screws and cover them with tamper-proof plastic tabs. He gave me a Breathalyzer test to check my blood-alcohol level. Finally, he showed me how to set up the wireless modem that would, every night at 3 a.m., automatically receive data from the monitor and send it to a server in Colorado.

As he explained that the device would record my transdermal alcohol level every 30 minutes, I felt a tremor on my ankle as the tiny air pump sipped its sample from my skin. The box buzzed like a BlackBerry on vibrate. Even though I was under no court order to avoid drinking, I came to think of that sensation as a cellphone call from my conscience.

Long trousers concealed the scarlet DUI implied by my anklewear. But when I changed to running shorts at 5 p.m., I became acutely self-conscious. I wasn't surprised that people noticed as I jogged along Sligo Creek Trail, but I was taken aback by their pointed reactions: open stares at my leg, a quick glance at my face and then eyes firmly averted.

I was ready with a dodge for any inquisitive stranger. (It's a fitness computer! Insulin pump! Pedometer!). But no one said anything.

After my shower at 6 p.m., I administered my first test, "accidentally" spilling a capful of Listerine down my leg. I rinsed it off and half an hour later joined my wife for a shot of scotch whisky on the rocks. It was a little creepy knowing that a machine was about to catch me red-handed, or at least red-ankled.

I had a glass of wine with dinner, then decided to give the thing a real workout. My friend Tom picked me up at 8:30, and we joined two buddies on the patio of Guapo's, a Mexican restaurant in Tenleytown.

Two double margaritas later, I needed a break from the unblinking gaze of Loudoun's alcohol watchdogs. With tequila-fueled defiance, I stuffed one of my friend Jim's Dos Equis labels between the monitor and my ankle. For the next hour, I hoped, my blood-alcohol level was my own business. Although the singing might have given me away.

My subterfuge was effective: The device won't work if you slip something between it and your skin. But the monitoring service can tell if that happens, and that usually constitutes a violation of the user's parole agreement.

The next morning, I called Reid for the overnight report from Colorado. "What did you do at six o'clock?" he asked. "Your alcohol reading went off the charts."

Turns out Listerine is quite a boozy mouthwash, especially when poured undiluted over an alcohol sensor.

It's so potent, in fact, that my anklet remained in a Listerine haze all night, reading hour after hour of maximum alcohol saturation. Reid could show me the hour for which I had blocked the device with the beer label, but otherwise my reading was a flat line until the wee hours, when the mouthwash began to wear off.

A real bracelet wearer with those results would have been in for some hard questions and possibly busted for tampering. But even I, an innocent test case, felt a bit of relief that my double margaritas never made it on my permanent record.

I cut off the strap, monitored no more, and poured an extra-large cup of coffee. Now the only thing that hurt more than my ankle was my head.

© 2009 The Washington Post Company

Number one cause of injury

Drug overdoses have become the number one cause of injury-related death in the United States, killing an average of 44,000 people every year. 

The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 114 people die a day because of drugs (TIME magazine offers a much higher estimate), and 6,748 will be sent to hospital emergency rooms for treatment. While addiction and substance abuse are undoubtedly major problems in the US, a survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that as many as 90 percent of people who most need drug rehab do not receive it. 

The 12 Steps, as outlined in the original Big Book and presented by AA are:

1. Admitting powerlessness over the addiction
2. Believing that a higher power (in whatever form) can help
3. Deciding to turn control over to the higher power
4. Taking a personal inventory
5. Admitting to the higher power, oneself, and another person the wrongs done
6. Being ready to have the higher power correct any shortcomings in one’s character
7. Asking the higher power to remove those shortcomings
8. Making a list of wrongs done to others and being willing to make amends for those wrongs
9. Contacting those who have been hurt, unless doing so would harm the person
10. Continuing to take personal inventory and admitting when one is wrong
11. Seeking enlightenment and connection with the higher power via prayer and meditation
12. Carrying the message of the 12 Steps to others in need

Ankle monitors contribute to offenders getting back on track

http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/keci/ankle-monitors-contribute-to-offenders-getting-back-on-track/652735510