ELECTRONIC PUNISHMENT WORKS FOR COUNTY, STATE

America's prisons are overflowing. The nation's prison population reached a record 804,524 men and women during the first half of 1991. We must ease this overcrowding through brick and mortar or by stepped-up use of alternative methods of punishment for non-violent offenders. Otherwise, there will be no place to house dangerous criminals ... and their early release due to space constraints may spell disaster.

An electronic monitoring program has worked well for Missouri and Cape Girardeau County. It's far more cost effective than incarcerating non-violent offenders and has proved more successful at incorporating these people back into society. Offenders are allowed to live at home and work.

The electronic shackling concept dates back five years in Missouri, when a law was passed by the state legislature. Five pilot areas were chosen that first year including Cape Girardeau. The program's success in these pilot cities spurred statewide implementation in 1989.

The standard program lasts 120 days, and only persons who are convicted of less serious crimes (Class C and D felonies) are eligible. A thick, rubber shackle is attached to the offender's leg for the length of the program. A receiver is then set up in the home, monitoring the parolee's movements 24-hours a day through a phone hookup. Offenders must remain within 150 feet of the receiver, or an alarm will sound.

The shackling program allows offenders to live in a restrictive environment, while maintaining employment or attending treatment programs. Those in the program must pay $8 a day, along with long distance phone charges made by the unit in its monitoring.

Locally, prisoners are monitored through either the Missouri Probation and Parole office or the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Office. The parole office has had as many as 23 people on the program at one time and is currently monitoring four. The sheriff's office has had as many as 10 participants; four are now being monitored.

The state pays about $3 million to General Security Services Corp., which won the bid for providing and monitoring the units. The cost is about half of what it would be to keep these same people in prison. An estimated 750 people per year are released through the electronic shackling program statewide.

Technology works for us in almost every aspect of life today. It only makes sense to extend this high-tech to the prison system. The fact we haven't heard much about this program proves there have been few problems with tampering or escapes.

Electronic shackling has proved a good alternative to incarceration for non-violent offenders. It won't solve the problem of prison overcrowding, but it's one way to make space available for the more dangerous criminals. Without these alternative programs or new prisons, the state and nation will be forced to parole greater numbers of prisoners early. And that will be much more detrimental to communities in the long run.