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Abstract: 

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (A.O.U.S.C.) operates one of the largest electronic monitoring programs in the United States—over 4,500 pretrial defendants and another 3,800 federal probationers and parolees are monitored each month. This article surveys the mission, scope, objectives, and underlying philosophy of the A.O.U.S.C.’s electronic monitoring program for pretrial, probation, and parole populations, with an emphasis on location monitoring. The authors are senior administrators with the agency. They review practices, policies, and procedures—specifically, how the agency decides which offenders should be placed on electronic monitoring; how risk assessments are used to determine the length and restrictiveness of a monitoring plan; how the results of monitoring reports are used internally, day-to-day, and with other agencies when appropriate; how agents decide which type of monitoring—GPS, RF, or voice—to use with a particular offender; how monitoring is being used to affect behavioral change; and future directions for location monitoring including the potential use of smart phone applications.

Keywords: Location Monitoring; Pretrial Monitoring; Probation and Parole; Cost Advantages; GPS Monitoring; RF Monitoring

Affiliations:  1: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (A.O.U.S.C.); 2: A.O.U.S.C.; 3: A.O.U.S.C..