BY |
Behind every emergence of a new technology, you can bet that it has been checked out by several bodies before it is deployed. As is custom, evaluations are conducted to determine general safety, possible assistance in National Security and U.S. Military defense and offense, Citizen privacy, and general application toward the greater Constitutional social good. In the current political stream of focus, society seems to want more safety and controls to protect personal property and well-being of the population at large. New processes and devices now abound to help curtail the problems associated with bad behavior, but before anyone salutes or praises the new tech toys for judges, courts, and sentencing, remember to take a conscious look at your own situation and consider tidying up.
Future Bail Bonds wants to take this moment to remind you of a statistic from 2022 that suggests 310 persons are incarcerated every day on average within a population of 100,000; but more reliably, the prisonpolicy.org site claims a total of 0.7% of the US population is incarcerated of 2020. While that seems to be a very narrow window, every adult has the opportunity to confront the possibility of jail time and all have a licensed ally in fast release from their predicament in jail. Consider reaching out to Mr. Nice Guy Bail Bonds for reasonable options that limit the stay of someone you care about, and restore normalcy quickly. That’s the type of help that gives them the nod of support they need to make the appropriate arrangements for moving on with life.
Do the words Own Recognizance mean anything to you?
The words mean a lot to the person who has spent any time in the back of a police cruiser or transport and been processed into local or large scale lock up. OR means that you are permitted to leave the jail situation that you are in prior to your formal arraignment so that your release frees up limited jail space for people who need to remain in jail until arraignment or trial, or people with no means of support to get out, or of course, people in for a capital offense without resources. With the exception of weekends, most government run facilities are required to hold those suspected or accused of endangering themselves or the public until a competency and-or public safety measurement is met.
Competency is a significant factor in the OR release no matter when given. In a DUI arrest, you are to be held until your blood alcohol content (BAC) is below .02 or 24 hours minimum. You can’t acknowledge the charge if you do not understand or comprehend the charge, and this can extend your stay if you pose a general threat to the public or yourself. Being under the influence of any substance including alcohol is part of that “comprehension” measurement.
Just as person’s under house arrest (serving a sentence by voluntary confinement), person’s under such conditions face a new class of technologies for their behavior and where-abouts monitoring. They have luxury jail accommodations for paying time-servers (spreading their jail time out) with behavior restrictions of the facility) and some locations are branching to the sophisticated new monitoring programs which have a nice price for each day of home device use. There have always been stories about persons who removed the bracelet and slipped it onto their grandparents’ ankle or onto their dog in hopes of appeasing monitoring. While you may have sworn proof that it has happened, the chances are thinning with new technology. Now the same advancements that prevent a cell phone from being used or unlocked by anyone but the owner prevent that type of “cheating” on a monitor. The combination of Health technologies that detect breathing, heart-rate, activity, and global positioning systems which can determine location, and image identification are newfound friends of probation officers, parole officers and judges. The technology may in fact become sharp enough to assist in recovery treatment (preventing substitute samples) where physical specimens are needed to prove that an individual is “clean.”
In those locations utilizing new technology as part of sentencing, the cost to the tried and sentenced DUI offender is anywhere between $9.00-15.00 per day. The monitoring devices issued prompts for testing at random intervals. The micro-camera proves it is you (down the road there will be something more exact like fingerprinting or eye-scan). You are given a response window to each test alert and you have a time frame for responding. You provide your hours of sleep and they will ignore the test for probably. Remember that it takes 12 hours to diminish a .08 BAC to .00 in an average adult. You probably extend your sentence by one more day for any occurrence of a BAC over 00.
Technology changes the “policing” as well, reaching out by phone when someone doesn’t check in on their screen when prompted by the surveying device. People will call, violations are logged electronically, and if you get enough, you will face either more time and expense with the assigned gadget or face true incarceration for failing to comply. That means that a control program records your responses to every alert to respond to your monitor, and law enforcement employs more passive support personnel to reach out and get your reason for not answering. In the case of alcohol check devices, they require a breath analysis at random times throughout the day and any BAC count stands to dirty-up your input. The modification of health sensors to detect “metabolism” related changes (as induced by certain narcotics) will probably also be targeted in a future screening device.
Barriers to get over as test communities and agencies utilize these technologies:
- Travel outside the control area (satellite tracking is more expensive)
- Outside influences, use of substances OTHER than the punished offense
- Safety to the public at large (deciding how many fails will be tolerated)
- Lost or forgotten devices (cost or replacement, extension of punishment time)
Those are some of the challenges that the imposing and enforcing portion of the process need to examine and consider. Overall acceptance of use will be whether or not the rate of repeat offenses diminishes over time. The breath analysis devices secured on your vehicle in answer to a DUI offense, requiring a breath analysis before ignition can engage, are applied to monitor 90 or 120 day sobriety sentences. There is rumor that within 5 years, the locking ignition on sensing alcohol in the driver’s breath will be built into vehicles like air-bags.
At the cost to the wearer of anywhere between $9.00-15.00 per day, in a proven DUI sentence of 6 months of monitoring. If you do the math, that resulting number should be a deterrent. The micro-camera proves it is you checking in. You are given a response window to each test alert and a staffer monitors that you respond in the time frame. You provide your hours of sleep and they will suspend the testing for seven hours. Remember that it takes 12 hours to diminish a .08 BAC to .00 in an average adult, so consuming in your sleep hours will not be hidden by your first, second, or maybe even third test the next day.
What takes place after sentencing and violation of use has yet to be finalized. The fact that it can happen in the not so distant future is a reminder to consider what habits people have that are creating considerable risk for 1) arrest and 2) punishment. Let technology be your ally and not your downfall, and remember now that the new items are so sharp that you really can’t steal them because they are useless to anyone but their owner.
Future Bail Bonds is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with live agent consultation to help you help someone you care about. Turn a bad situation into a turn-around situation, because support helps people change.