Omnilink Offender Monitoring Success Story:

Clark County Courts Home Incarceration Office

It costs at least $40 a day — plus medical — to jail offenders in Clark County, Indiana. And while many offenders truly should be kept off the streets in the interest of public safety, it's not always the answer for some convicted of non-violent offenses. Mindful of this, the Clark County Courts implemented an alternative home incarceration program for offenders who don't need to be in jail, but need more than just probation.

Since the program's inception, the Office of Home Incarceration has used several different technologies to track offender whereabouts; however, none of the RF or GPS offender monitoring products had performed satisfactorily. The GPS units in particular were riddled with issues. They created a barrage of false readings. And an offender couldn't be tracked indoors unless resting a foot on a windowsill, as GPS technology requires line-of-sight to a satellite. In fact, the GPS units had performed so poorly that Bill Delehanty, Director of Clark County Courts Home Incarceration Office, was on the verge of informing a judge the office would be discontinuing the use of GPS tracking technology.

"The tracking system alone is heads above anything else that's out there," Delehanty affirms. "The entire solution has been problem-free for us.
It tells me where my people are at all times, which is essential to making the House Arrest program a success."

So when a colleague introduced him to an Omnilink sales representative who offered to demo a new GPS electronic tracking solution, one that promised drastically different results, Delehanty's answer was initially a "No, thanks — not interested." But eventually, his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to let the rep stop by. To Delehanty's considerable surprise, after checking out Omnilink's technology, his outlook on GPS was completely transformed.

Tracking Offenders Where GPS Alone Can't

What impressed Delehanty the most is Omnilink's ability to track offenders where other products can't. Whether the offender is outside or inside, the Omnilink offender monitoring solution can keep track of his or her whereabouts.

Delehanty talks about putting the solution to the test: "I did a rigorous two-week trial of Omnilink's product. I put the device on myself, my wife, others in the office — the technology never failed to identify exactly where we were. Within a week, we had deployed Omnilink devices on more than half the offenders in our House Arrest program."

How does Omnilink manage to track offenders where line-of-sight to a satellite is unavailable? In a nutshell, Omnilink's solution employs additional cellular technology that locates a device even when it's indoors.

A single-unit ankle monitoring device is paired with sophisticated, yet easy-to-use monitoring software that gives law enforcement unprecedented capabilities. In just minutes, administrators can set up offender profiles and then configure inclusion and exclusion zones for each one. If an offender violates a zone, an alert is immediately sent to appropriate individuals.

"These notifications have essentially freed me from needing constant access to either my laptop or PC," notes Delehanty. Before Omnilink, Delehanty had to check through various logs on his computer to see where clients had been the night before. This process always took a couple of hours and had to be repeated a few times a day, as well as on the weekends. Since he could only get this information from his office desktop or home laptop, he was generally tied down to one or the other.

"With Omnilink, customized alerts go straight to my BlackBerry. I always know where my clients are at any given time and the moment they violate a zone," Delehanty observes. Indeed, thanks to the Omnilink solution one client was found out on the golf course when he was supposed to be at work. Another, also supposed to be on the job, was found sitting in a local tavern.

A Successful House Arrest Program Fully Funded By Offenders

Omnilink has helped the Home Incarceration program essentially pay for itself without spending any taxpayer money. Offenders pay a small hook up fee, and approximately $10 a day to wear the device. Compared with the County spending $40 a day to jail an offender, the cost savings is undeniable.

The technology also helps Clark County give some additional latitude to job-holding offenders who follow the rules of the program. Now these clients can leave home to go to work, and thus, continue to support their families because the County can verify they really are at their places of employment.

But most importantly, the Omnilink solution works. "The tracking system alone is heads above anything else that's out there," Delehanty affirms. "The entire solution has been problem-free for us. It tells me where my people are at all times, which is essential to making the House Arrest program a success."

Expanding Omnilink's Role Into Additional Law Enforcement Initiatives

Omnilink's offender monitoring solution has turned out to be the exact technology Clark County needs for other judicial programs. In fact, the County has begun to put the device on anyone who violates probation, as these offenders are automatically sentenced to 90 days of home incarceration.

There is also significant interest in using Omnilink devices to track sex offenders, specifically to guarantee these offenders are kept away from schools and playgrounds.

Delehanty concludes with a strong testament to Omnilink's customer service: "They didn't just get us up and running and then forget about us. Our rep never fails to call us each week to make sure everything is OK, and I really appreciate that — that's the way I like to do business. When the product and service are this good, there's not much left to say — except try it out yourself to see how groundbreaking this solution really is for enforcing house arrest programs."