To remedy problems of massive overcrowding in state and local prisons, the courts and parole boards are searching for and using alternative methods of constraint.

An electronic monitoring program providing intensive supervision in a home environment was established by law in Missouri in 1987.

Five pilot areas one in each federal district - were set up. Cape Girardeau, St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield were the first cities to receive electronic shackling capabilities.

Due to the success of the program, the relatively low cost of prisoner maintenance and the response from the pilot cities, the program spread statewide in 1989.

Separate programs

Cape Girardeau County has two separate programs: one offered by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, and a more modern system used by the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole.

The main benefit of the program - aside from money saved - is that it allows persons convicted of non-violent crimes to live at home, work and to be transfused back into the community.

The standard program lasts 120 days. Only persons who are in prison convicted of class C and D felonies are eligible for the state-sponsored program.

Van Hecke, the state probation and parole officer in Cape Girardeau in charge of the electronic monitoring program, thinks the system has merit and benefits all parties involved.

Last year's model

The Missouri Probation and Parole Office started out using a garage door opener-looking device that was strapped to the prisoner's waist, wrist or ankle with a band very similar to those used in hospitals for patient identification.

"The bands could be broken with your hands," Hecke said. "If someone took off the unit and left it by the phone, it could be a long time before we found out about it."

The receiver, which looked much like a CB radio unit, plugged into the phone. The receiver registered electronic pulses from the unit, logging them until calling into the main computer.

When time to call, the receiver would take over the phone line, even if there was someone on the phone. It would then dial into the main computer and report the time span between which it received pulses from the unit affixed to the parolee.

Problem device

Hecke said that his office experienced several problems with the old equipment.

"For instance, the battery pack is deep inside the unit; it can be taken out," Hecke said. "So to recharge the battery, we had to remove the unit from the client and plug it in."

Hecke also said that the units could be easily removed without the parole office being aware, sometimes for long periods of time.

"Since the main computer was in the office, no one checked the readouts from the time everyone went home on Friday to when we reopened the office on Monday morning," he said.

"A person could be long gone by the time we knew about it."

The parole office also experienced several problems with the phone wires.

The unit sends off tones much like telephone touch tones. If the tones were too loud or too soft, or if the phone towers were too close to the unit, the resulting distortion could cause the entire unit to malfunction.

Vernon Cronister, who was in charge of the program at the time, began to splice the phone cords with ohm resistors to cut down on the interference.

"We could have taken out a patent on those phone cords," Hecke said. "Vernon would sit here in the office with a soldering iron mass producing them for all the phone cords that weren't working."

Roach havens

The old units also attracted roaches in some of the clients' homes.

"It was a warm, dry place for the roaches to live," Hecke explained. "We had to take most of the units that were returned, put them in black plastic bags, spray the heck out of them with Raid, close them up and let them sit for about a week."

The parole officers also experienced several other technical difficulties, leaving them little time to do much else than fix or replace the faulty units.

New, improved model

But then the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole met the General Security Services Corporation of Minneapolis, Minn., when looking for bids on a newer, more practical system in 1990.

When GSSC won the bid, they developed a shackle that eclipsed and outright eliminated the old restraint.

GSSC developed a shackle that was foolproof, inescapable and could be monitored 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

The new unit is larger and a bit more bulky, but virtually flawless in its design.

Company in charge

The company itself is in charge of affixing the shackle to the prisoner and setting the receiver up in the home, and it monitors the prisoner's movements 24-hours a day.

When attached to the phone hookup, the unit dials the 1-800 number to the Minneapolis computer, advising it of the parolee's movements throughout the day.

If the shackle is broken, and the parolee cannot be reached, Hecke is immediately notified by GSSC. If the prisoner leaves beyond the curfew - and contact is established with the client - Hecke receives a fax advising him of the movement.

Prevents tampering

The unit itself has a replaceable battery, specially made in Boulder, Colo., for the shackle. Once it is affixed to the prisoner, a safety lock is placed over the top of the unit to prevent tampering.

As an added bonus, the new shackle has three safety features that will automatically detect when a shackle is being tampered with.

First, the body of the shackle is bordered by electrodes which must be in place to complete the electrical circuit.

Then the band - made of a heavy, tire-like rubber - has a graphite core which conducts a mild stream of electricity which, when disturbed, sets off the alarm.

Finally, the unit must be affixed to the inside of the left ankle of the prisoner, because the belly of the device has a heat-sensing unit that reads body temperature between 96 and 103 degrees. The unit must be worn against the skin for a proper body temperature reading.

If the alarm is set off in Minneapolis, it cannot be shut off until the unit has been reset by a GSSC representative.

Once-a-week checks

Clients are required to come in at least once a week to have the equipment checked for flaws and tampering.

The receiving unit, attached to the phone, is far more polite than its forerunner. If a client or a family member is on the phone when the unit wants to make its call, it will simply making clicking noises on the line until the person hangs up.

The receiving unit is also completely sealed so that household pests cannot infiltrate the mechanisms and distort the system.

The receiver has two antennas - rather than one like the old unit - which can pick up the presence of the client within 150 feet of the receiver. The old unit was only accurate up to 100 feet.

"My opinion may be biased, but in my experience, the new system is far superior to the one we started out with," Hecke said. "And the technology is being improved upon daily."

If there are ever any problems with the new system, the company will immediately replace the unit.

Since 1990, Hecke said, his office has had trouble with only one unit from GSSC.

"The older units just weren't as reliable," he said. "We had to fix 30-50 percent of them on a regular basis."

Few difficulties

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department still uses an updated version of the older model.

Right now, three to four people are on the county electronic monitoring program each month, according to Lt. Ruth Ann Dickerson, one of those in charge of the program.

Dickerson said the county has not experienced many technical difficulties with the units since they were first introduced to the Sheriff's Department in November 1986.

Since there are people on duty 24-hours a day at the Sheriff's Department, the units can be monitored closely by dispatchers or other officers.

"We've had a few minor infractions, but nothing serious," Dickerson said. "If they take off, we can go out and look for them almost immediately."

With the county's system at their disposal, circuit judges have the option of releasing an offender in a somewhat-restrictive environment while allowing them to maintain employment and enter into treatment programs.

Both units are waterproof and are to be worn at all times.

The Sheriff's Department and the parole office do in-home interviews and make frequent checks on their clients.

To be eligible, a person must have somewhere to live and a phone line. The phone line must be private, cannot have call waiting or call forwarding, and no answering machines or other recording devices may be attached while the receiver is in the home.

If an emergency

People on the program are allowed to leave the home only to go to work or school, to attend counseling programs and/or for emergency purposes.

"If there's an emergency, we just tell our clients to go; not to check in," Hecke said. "We don't want to be liable for serious injuries or deaths due to a parolee trying to contact someone for permission to leave the house."

Candidates for the electronic monitoring program within the circuit are required to pay $8 a day and must pay long distance phone charges the unit racks up.

Since actual operation costs for the system are a little more than $7, the county makes up for those who cannot afford to use the system.

The new system, used by the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole, poses a far greater cost to the state.

The state pays GSSC as much as $3 million per year for their services. That cost does not include the salaries of probation officers or other miscellaneous costs.

"But when you compare that figure to the $6 million that it would cost to keep those same people in prison, it's quite a substantial savings," Hecke said.

Parolees on the state program are required to get a job within 30 days of their release and to give the parole office 25 percent of their gross pay.