Seward Sheriff Hopes Technology Eases Jail Crowding
Seward County, Neb., Sheriff Joe Yocum has asked county commissioners to allow him to put together a contract proposal with the Omaha firm iSECUREtrac for a system that would keep an eye on nonviolent criminal offenders. The system would use electronic tracking bracelets and GPS to monitor the day-to-day whereabouts of such offenders without keeping them in prison. Though the system would cost an estimated $1,575 per month to use, Seward County spent $19,200 in October to hold prisoners outside its borders. If commissioners sign off on the deal, Yocum and his staff would convert a system that utilizes bracelets attached to offenders’ ankles. Before they go to bed, offenders wearing the bracelets would have to take off the personal tracking device from themselves and plug it into a wall for recharging and to download a record of their location that day to the sheriff’s office via a phone line. That record would reveal, for instance, any violations of a protection order that mandated a husband to stay away from his wife’s home.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Lincoln Journal-Star (11/23/04) P. B1; Hovey, Art .
