Sobriety Monitoring

More than one million DUI arrests are made, and 3.7 million alcohol related crimes are committed each year. With new alcohol monitoring technology, it is possible to sentence the individuals who commit these crimes to sobriety.

Have you ever thought about how, if your offenders couldn’t drink alcohol, all the positive ways that it would impact their lives, your court, the community – and even your own life?

One of the fundamental benefits of sobriety monitoring is that it can effectively separate alcohol from the offender by continuously monitoring them for alcohol consumption. Sobriety monitoring addresses the root cause of the offender’s addiction, rather than just treating the symptoms. If your offenders can remain sober for an extended period of time, here are some of the significant results you’re likely to see:

ESA offers two solutions for home monitoring.

BI Sobrietor^®

How Does Sobrietor Work?

Sobrietor uses a powerful combination of advanced voice recognition technology and alcohol content measurement to provide one of the most reliable and accurate alcohol monitoring systems available today. At scheduled or random intervals, the client simply follows voice prompts given by Sobrietor. Sobrietor verifies the identity of the client using advanced voice verification technology. Sensors ensure that the client maintains contact with Sobrietor throughout the duration of the test, preventing one person from passing the voice identification test and someone else from taking the alcohol test. The Sobrietor breath test measures the client’s Breath Alcohol Content (BrAC), which is directly proportional to the client’s blood alcohol content. The client’s intoxication level is reported to a monitoring computer over telephone lines. In addition, Sobrietor monitors and reports interruptions in telephone connectivity or power as well as any attempts to tamper with the device.

Key Features

• Easy enrollment using the Officer Control Unit
• Voice prompts in English and Spanish ensure proper usage
• Voice recognition technology and sensors ensure offender identification and test results
• Increased security with adjustable voice verification threshold and failed voice verification storage
• Accurate alcohol content measurements using fuel cell technology
• Remote testing allows compliance with the alcohol restriction to be verified each and every day
• System Integration: Sobrietor may be used as a stand-alone sanction or in conjunction with electronic monitoring.

Why Sobrietor?

Sobrietor can help individuals break the relationship between alcohol and criminal behavior. By requiring mandatory sobriety, many crimes can actually be prevented. BI offers remote alcohol testing as an essential component of our continuum of graduated sanctions. Sobrietor is an effective method to monitor an offender’s compliance and progress, and can be an important part of BI’s integrated supervision and treatment products and services.

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AMS SCRAM

When most people think about SCRAM, what likely comes to mind is the ankle bracelet that offenders wear while being continuously monitored for alcohol consumption. However, there are actually three components to the SCRAM system:

• The SCRAM bracelet
• The SCRAM modem
• SCRAMNET

The SCRAM bracelet

The patented SCRAM ankle bracelet – the heart of the SCRAM system – is attached to the offender with a durable and tamper-proof strap. It is worn 24/7 by the offender for the duration of his or her court-ordered abstinence period (typically 90-120 days).
Twice an hour, the bracelet captures transdermal alcohol readings by sampling the insensible perspiration collected from the air above the skin. The bracelet stores the data and, at pre-determined intervals, transmits it via a wireless radio-frequency (RF) signal to the SCRAM modem.

Attributes:

• Tamper- and water- resistant
• Samples insensible perspiration every 30 minutes (2x per hour)
• Automatically collects, stores, and transfers all data via the SCRAM modem on a predetermined schedule (at least 1x per day)
• Date- and time-stamps readings for easy reporting and analysis

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The SCRAM modem

The SCRAM modem is the mechanism by which the data that is collected by the SCRAM bracelet gets transmitted to Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS) for analysis and reporting.
When the SCRAM bracelet is installed on the offender’s ankle, he or she also receives the SCRAM modem, which plugs into an analog telephone line – usually in the offender’s home or place of work. At a pre-scheduled time(s) each day, the SCRAM bracelet “communicates” with the SCRAM modem, and the modem retrieves all available data from the bracelet. The modem also downloads monitoring and reporting schedules to the bracelet.

Attributes:

• Plugs into any telephone LAN line
• Stores alcohol readings, tamper alerts, and diagnostic data uploaded from the SCRAM bracelet
• Sends all data to SCRAMNet over the phone line
• Downloads monitoring and reporting schedules from SCRAMNET to the SCRAM bracelet

When data is received from the SCRAM modem, it is stored in SCRAMNET, the web-based application managed by AMS where offender data is collected, analyzed, and maintained in a secure, central location.

Where the SCRAM bracelet is the heart of the SCRAM system, SCRAMNET is the brains. It is the information hub that not only houses all offender data, but lets you manage it in the way that is the most effective for your offender management program.

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SCRAMnet

SCRAMNET provides a wide range of reports and graphs at your fingertips – from a snapshot of a single event to a comprehensive view of an offender’s behavior over time. SCRAMNET lets you customize and easily tailor the reporting that best suits your needs and individual cases, and helps reduce your workload through exception-based reporting.

Attributes:

• Can be accessed around-the-clock, from any location, using a standard web browser
• Provides exception-based reporting to reduce workload
• Flags and graphically depicts any alcohol ingestion, tampers, or removal attempts
• Lets you easily customize testing, synchronization, and reporting schedules for each offender
• Provides customized reports and graphs to best suit your information needs
• Allows you to cost-effectively monitor and manage numerous offenders simultaneously

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SCRAM Benefits

SCRAM offers significant advantages to the courts and supervising agencies that use them, as well as to the offenders themselves. Some of the key benefits of SCRAM include:

Continuous alcohol monitoring
Increased offender accountability
Scientifically-proven technology
Court acceptance
Flexible, exception-based reporting
Non-invasive automated testing
Evidence-based assessment and detection
Improved outcomes
Cost effectiveness

Continuous Alcohol Monitoring

While blood and breath tests only measure sobriety at a specific point in time, SCRAM samples the offender’s sweat as often as every half hour. This gives you complete 24/7 coverage, rather than just a snapshot look at when your offenders are on their best behavior.

Increased Offender Accountability

Since SCRAM gives you complete, around-the-clock data on whether or not your offenders are consuming alcohol, they can’t drink around testing schedules or lie about their actions. In fact, SCRAM makes it very difficult for them to consume alcohol or tamper with the device without being caught. It’s all there in black and white – and your offenders know that you know what they’re doing every hour of the day.

Scientifically-Proven Technology

SCRAM is based on scientifically-proven continuous transdermal alcohol monitoring technology, which is the result of more than 70 years of research and 22 peer-reviewed studies. Some of these studies include those conducted by the:

• Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF)
• University of Colorado Health Science Center
• Michigan Department of Corrections
• Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center

If the offender has been drinking, SCRAM will detect varying levels of ethanol to qualitatively determine alcohol consumption – showing whether the offender has consumed a small, moderate, or substantial amount of alcohol.

Court Acceptance

Continuous transdermal alcohol monitoring technology (the basis of SCRAM) has been accepted in evidentiary hearings across the country, with most resulting in favorable Frye or Daubert rulings.
AMS has an excellent track record of defending SCRAM in numerous court cases, and the vast majority of judges hearing cases involving SCRAM have recognized that the device is accurate, reliable, and generally accepted.

Flexible Reporting

SCRAM’s flexible reporting functionality lets you specify how you want to receive information on each monitored offender – from full historical data to exception-based reporting. Either way, you receive the data you need on who offended, when they offended, and the level of alcohol they consumed.

Non-Invasive, Automated Testing

Because SCRAM’s testing process is automated, it requires no labor on your part or appointments to administer tests. Once it’s installed on the offender’s ankle, it does all the work for you.
For probation or courts juggling huge caseloads, SCRAM is an incredibly effective way to manage hundreds of offenders right from your desk. And from an offender standpoint, SCRAM is physically non-invasive and is minimally disruptive on daily activities.

Evidence-Based Assessment and Detection

SCRAM is an effective assessment tool that lets you better gauge offender drinking patterns and evaluate addiction levels to tailor individualized treatment programs.
The SCRAM bracelet can conclusively distinguish between ingested and environmental alcohol. This is key to courts because if the product couldn’t ascertain whether the offender drank or came into contact with an environmental alcohol source (like lotions, etc.), then judges would not be able to make evidence-based decisions.

Improved Outcomes

By having an effective deterrent like SCRAM, your offenders will have the opportunity to finally get – and stay – sober. Combining that with treatment gives them the best chance for long-term change, and allows them to maintain family obligations, hold jobs, and contribute positively to the community.

Over the years that AMS has provided SCRAM, we have heard numerous first-hand accounts of offenders who have gotten sober for the first time in years, received the treatment or assistance they needed, and have been successful in maintaining alcohol-free lives – all because they were ordered by the court to wear SCRAM. We are very proud that SCRAM has made such a profound difference in so many lives, families, and communities across the country, and are committed to helping even more alcohol-dependant people receive a second chance at a new life.

• Helps protect the community and promote safer roads
• Helps lower recidivism
• Provides better responses to treatment when combined with SCRAM
• Lets offenders maintain family obligations, hold jobs, and contribute positively to the community

Cost Effective, Automate Testing

Transdermal testing has a low cost per test, so multiple tests can be administered for the same cost as one blood or breath test. Using SCRAM also costs significantly less than incarceration or home arrest systems that incorporate alcohol monitoring.
* Offers a low cost per test
* Costs significantly less than incarceration or home arrest systems
* Requires no labor after installation or appointments to administer tests
* Is physically non-invasive and minimally disruptive on the offender’s daily activities

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