Carteret Sheriff's Dept. Hopes Electronic Monitoring Will Save Money, Cell Space

The software -- from a company called iSECUREtrac -- allows the department to set up zones where offenders can and cannot go. If an offender tampers with the bracelet or enters an exclusion zone, deputies are notified instantly.

By: Philip Jones | WNCT
Published: January 14, 2009

Overcrowded jails are a problem for nearly every county here in the east. But not too long ago, the Pitt County Sheriff's Office started a program to electronically monitor some offenders in hopes of easing that problem.

As Nine On Your Side's Philip Jones reports, another county here in the east is now following in Pitt's footsteps with its own ankle bracelet program.

Most inmates in Carteret County spend all their time inside the county's jail. But under a new program that got off the ground last month, a handful of non-violent offenders here have traded in their jail cell for the outside world.

“Overcrowding is an issue for Carteret County,” said sheriff’s department Det. Tony Cummings. “Those detention centers in North Carolina that are not experiencing overcrowding are few and far between.”

The Carteret County Jail has about 120 beds, but sometimes houses as many as 150 inmates.

So the sheriff's department is now getting its feet wet with an ankle bracelet monitoring program.

“It's not just a matter of putting a device around somebody's ankle and turning them lose back in to society,” Sheriff Asa Buck said. “They have a lot of rules and regulations they have to go by.”

Sheriff Buck says the department is very selective about the offenders it allows to participate in the program.

Most, he says, are deadbeat dads.

“It's hard to collect money from an offender if he's in jail,” Det. Cummings said.

Det. Cummings oversees the program and can track the offenders in real-time using satellites.

The software -- from a company called iSECUREtrac -- allows the department to set up zones where offenders can and cannot go.

If an offender tampers with the bracelet or enters an exclusion zone, deputies are notified instantly.

It's a move designed to save the county both cell space and money -- and it ensures that folks who can afford to pay child support are doing just that.

It costs the county about $43 a day to house an inmate in the jail, but it costs just $9 a day to use the monitoring program.

So far, five offenders are on the program, but the sheriff's department plans to have 11 up and running by next week.

Pitt County served as the model for Carteret, and Sheriff Buck hopes other counties will follow Carteret’s lead as well.