Ankle monitors: a high-demand accessory for minor criminals
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Frank Scherer, manager of the monitoring program at the Allegheny County Adult Probation Department, demonstrates how to apply an ankle bracelet transmitter at its facility on Mt. Lebanon Boulevard in Castle Shannon.
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Electronic monitoring devices, black anklets made of rubber and plastic, are not exactly coveted, but in Allegheny County they are certainly in high demand.
Last week, about 1,200 people were wearing the monitoring units, mostly used to enforce house arrest for those convicted in Common Pleas Court of minor criminal offenses. Another 925 people were waiting for them.
The electronic monitoring waiting list started ballooning about a year ago, about the same time the court introduced a program to expedite minor cases.
"It worked overly well," said Common Pleas Judge Beth A. Lazzara, one of two judges who hear cases through the program, called the Phoenix docket. A backlog of cases poured through, about 4,000 since January, she estimated.
"What we're getting now is a bubble," said Judge Jeffrey A. Manning, administrative judge of the court's criminal division.
On average, people stay on the waiting list for four to six months, usually serving a less restrictive probation term until a device is available. Their electronic monitoring sentence does not start until they put on an anklet.
"We're doing our best to expedite everyone," said Frank Scherer, manager of the county's monitoring program, part of the Adult Probation Department. The department tries to get an anklet to a new person the same day it is returned from someone else.
But the county owns only 1,200 of the devices, which cost about $2,500 each. At any time, more than 2,000 people are required to wear them.
"With that comes manpower issues," said Mr. Scherer. "If we were able to get equipment for all 925 people, we'd have to hire probably three dozen more probation officers and get more monitors and computer equipment."
Across Pennsylvania, electronic monitoring waiting lists are not unheard of.
Westmoreland County has a waiting list of 177 people, down from more than 200 last year.
Philadelphia County had a waiting list earlier this year with 73 names on it. The list has since been eliminated. "We bought more monitors," said court administrator David Lawrence. "Easy."
Montgomery County usually has a waiting list with five or six people on it.
First Published November 7, 2010 12:00 am
