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Toledo Blade | September 9 2004 If you abuse alcohol and endanger others, you might find Big Brother not only breathing down your neck but wrapped snugly around your ankle. In criminal justice terms, the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAM ankle bracelet, is about saving lives, meting out punishment to drunken drivers, and helping alcoholics fight their addictions, according to its designers. In technological terms, it's about sweat. Specifically, a tiny pump inside the 8-ounce, tamper-proof device periodically scoops up a trace amount of perspiration vapor around your ankle. Then, a fuel cell similar to those used in Breathalyzer equipment tests for alcohol migrating through your skin. If it detects any, the bracelet kicks into high gear - its memory chip recording levels of alcohol, in parts per million, every half hour. Judges have been ordering the approximately $1,600 ankle bracelets worn around-the-clock by some drunken-driving offenders in Michigan for more than a year. SCRAM is also in use in more than 200 courts in 20 other states. Now, they're being used on Ohio offenders too. "It's my way of keeping them honest," said Tiffin Municipal Judge Mark Repp, who assigned three offenders - two underage drinkers and one repeat drunken driver - to the bracelet this summer. Oregon Municipal Judge Donald Z. Petroff began using the devices last month. SCRAM first went into use in the Buckeye state in the Cleveland/Akron area in January and has spread to several other counties. Franklin County signed a contract for SCRAM units in July, according to its Colorado manufacturer, Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc. Toledo Municipal Court is considering using the device, presiding Judge Gene Zmuda said. The bracelet allows offenders to lead an otherwise normal life, rather than spending the time in jail. The only restriction is that the 8-ounce bracelet can't be submerged in water, so a person wearing it can't take a bath or go swimming. Showers won't impact its effectiveness, the manufacturer reports. But once a day generally, the wearer must position himself or herself near a small phone modem that uses a 900 MHz frequency to pick up the readings contained in the memory chip. The readings then automatically transfer by phone lines to a local service contractor, who provides the data to the court. The device's housing is threaded with sensors and secured with a lock to detect tampering. But just as important as its use in the criminal justice system is the bracelet's ability to serve as a conscience, of sorts, to the alcoholic. Alcoholics often don't even admit to themselves that they have a drinking problem, Judge Petroff said. "They think: I will have one drink to prove to myself I'm so strong," he said. A bracelet forces them to confront their deception and their subsequent choices, he said. The biggest issue facing Toledo Municipal Court is going to be the cost, Judge Zmuda said. In Tiffin and Oregon, offenders so far have picked up the cost of the monitoring equipment - about $12 a day. But in Toledo, more offenders might be indigent, placing judges in a tough situation: Will only those who can afford it be assigned the device rather than a jail sentence? "Does that mean people can buy away time?" Judge Zmuda said. Judge Repp in Tiffin and Judge Petroff in Oregon said the cost will drop as the devices are used more frequently, and legislative changes may allow some court funds to subsidize their use for poorer offenders. --------------------------- |
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