Saint Louis County Justice Services awards alcohol monitoring contract to EMASS

Eastern Missouri Alternative Sentencing Services (EMASS) has announced that Saint Louis County Justice Services awarded their alcohol monitoring contract for the county's DUI offenders to EMASS and their transdermal alcohol sensors, known as SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitors).

SCRAM includes an ankle bracelet, worn around-the-clock, that samples an offender's perspiration every 30 minutes in order to ensure compliance with court-ordered sobriety. Both the St. Louis County Circuit and Drug Courts have used the SCRAM System on 375 offenders to-date. Nearly 70 offenders, predominantly repeat drunk drivers, are monitored daily in St. Louis County. The St. Louis City Court has monitored an additional 85 offenders with SCRAM.

According to EMASS President Mike Smith, the contract is particularly important because the review process included testing of other alcohol monitoring systems by Saint Louis County Justice Services officials. "We've been providing SCRAM technology to courts in the eastern part of Missouri since 2003 because we believe this technology is the best and most reliable way for the criminal justice system to fight the epidemic of drunk driving," says Smith. "SCRAM has revolutionized the way we manage DUI offenders, allowing courts to focus on the root cause of the criminal behavior, which is the alcohol abuse and addiction." EMASS has monitored nearly 2,500 offenders with SCRAM in 28 eastern Missouri counties. Smith says that by testing other technologies and selecting SCRAM and EMASS, the award underscores the county's belief in the system. "It tells us that we're delivering the right technology and providing value to their program. We are honored to be a part of this contract," he says.

Denver-based Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS), which manufactures and markets the SCRAM System throughout the U.S., says the strongest testament to the reliability of the SCRAM System is when agencies test their product side-by-side with other testing protocols. "Seeing is believing," says Don White, AMS COO. "We've got a long, proven track record of successfully monitoring hundreds of thousands of offenders. But first-hand experience - putting SCRAM head to head with other testing protocols - is the best way to show officials the potential for managing their offenders and keeping communities safe," he says.

Statewide, SCRAM has been used to monitor nearly 4,000 Missouri offenders, including a highly publicized pilot program with the Missouri Department of Corrections. Nationally, SCRAM is used in 48 states and has monitored 125,000 offenders since 2003.

On February 1, AMS also began a controlled roll-out of the next generation of their system, which incorporates House Arrest monitoring into their transdermal monitoring bracelet. Known as SCRAMx, the system will begin limited use in eastern Missouri counties in March, allowing courts the option to increase or decrease supervision of repeat, high-risk offenders with a single monitoring bracelet.

Alcohol and Crime in Missouri

According to The Century Council, which compiles DUI/DWI data state by state, more than 35,000 offenders are arrested each year for DWI in the state of Missouri. Of those, more than 28 percent are repeat offenders. And according to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly 36 percent of violent crimes and 75 percent of domestic violence cases include offenders who were drunk at the time of the offense. Drunk drivers represent 18 percent of all those on probation each year, more than any other single offense. "Recidivism rates for offenders struggling with alcohol are astounding. Programs that can manage the addiction and ensure sobriety through continuous testing are seeing significant impact," says White.

SOURCE Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc.