Device allows inmate mobility

SPANISH FORK — With a dark blue box strapped to an ankle, inmates of the Utah County Jail can now leave the jail and go home to a different kind of confinement than steel bars.

The Utah County Jail has 20 inmates on a new GPS ankle-monitoring system, a high-tech tracking device that jail officers say will save taxpayers money and free up jail beds.

The thick plastic box — about the size of two decks of cards — is fitted snugly to an inmate's ankle with a steel-enforced, fiber optic-equipped band.

The box has a GPS and mini-computer inside, giving jail officers real-time information about the inmate's location and the ability to track them electronically.

The overseeing officer creates "inclusion" or "exclusion" zones — areas where the individual can and cannot go. They can be as confining as 50 feet around the individual's home or as broad as the entire United States.

The Utah County Jail is the first jail in Utah to use the program.

Inmates wearing the ankle monitor are in the work-release program where they check into the jail each night to eat and sleep after working all day to support families, pay restitution or pay for therapy.

But in the past, when inmates left the jail, they essentially dropped off the radar until they returned.

"Before, when (an inmate) came to jail and went to work release, we never really knew if he was making a bee-line to work and back to jail," said Utah County Sheriff Sgt. Dennis Harris. "But now we know exactly what time he gets to work, we know every route he takes to go back home. It's even more confining than it was in the jail."

The new system, which the county jail started using Sept. 25, also prevents cheating during the work hours.

One employer took his friend and inmate employee golfing every Tuesday, yet reported the man was working, said Utah County Sheriff Sgt. Alan Lisonbee, who is in charge of the GPS system.

The jail previously used a radio-frequency ankle-monitoring system that would download a report of where the inmate had been during the day — but by then, any action was too late.

Now, if an inmate steps over a pre-set line, an alarm will go off and the monitor's speaker will crackle to life. An operator will ask what the inmate is doing, then pass along instructions from the jail, while phoning an officer. The inmate can also talk back to explain what's going on.