TESTIMONY: Comments Against Electronic Surveillance at Cook County Board of Commissioners Meetings
This week, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts gave testimony at two Cook County Board of Commissioners meetings on September 20 and September 22 to warn against the harms caused by electronic surveillance.
At the first Board of Commissioners meeting on September 20, our Director of Policy, Sarah Staudt, testified against the use of Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (“SCRAM”) devices as a condition of pretrial release.
SCRAM devices are electronic monitoring ankle bracelets that are designed to continuously monitor a person’s blood alcohol content as a condition of pretrial release. Illinois has allowed the use of SCRAM devices since 2006, but recently, tons of issues have been posed about their use—importantly, independent studies have shown issues with the efficacy and reliability of SCRAM (which are not approved medical devices). Typically, judges order these monitors for people who are awaiting trial for an allegation of driving under the influence (DUI), but Injustice Watch reported in 2021 that sometimes even people without alcohol- or drug-related charges are being ordered to wear SCRAM while they await trial. Moreover, these devices are extremely financially burdensome, with the company supplying the devices – CAM Systems – charging people between $12.40 to $24.40 per day for their use; the total cost could be over $730 per month (false positives are not uncommon, but each supposed violation accrues another $110). Regardless of how long someone is on the device, this massive bill could be catastrophic to an individual’s or family’s economic situation. Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer points out that CAM Systems has sued at least 40 people for the debts they incurred while forced to be on SCRAM devices.
Although the County’s contract with CAM Systems – the vendor for SCRAM devices – lapsed in January of 2021, the number of people wearing these devices has increased since that, according to information Injustice Watch received from the Office of the Chief Judge. On the agenda for the September 20 Board of Commissioners meeting was a proposed resolution request for a public hearing to discuss the Circuit Court of Cook County’s use of SCRAM devices as a condition of pretrial release, the oversight and reporting mechanisms for their use, and any existing or new contracts with CAM Systems.
Here is Sarah’s full testimony:
Good Morning, my name is Sarah Staudt, and I am the Director of Policy at Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts. Chicago Appleseed is a non-profit that seeks equitable and fair solutions to systemic injustices in Illinois’ courts and criminal legal system.
I am here today to urge the Cook County Board to act to sharply limit the use of “SCRAM” alcohol monitoring shackles in the Cook County Courts, and to require that all costs for such technology be borne by the county, not by individuals required to wear the devices. Reporting and research on this issue has shown that these bands are often overused by a small number of judges to place heavy burdens on individuals in their courtrooms, both those on both pretrial release and those on probation. The fact that the SCRAM program has been operating without a contract for almost two years is deeply concerning.
The most egregious element of these bands is the cost to participants. Cook County has largely moved towards a system where people moving through the criminal courts are not required to “pay their way” to participate in programs and restrictions that the courts themselves require. This trend has been a major victory for equity and justice in Cook County. SCRAM is a major exception to this general trend. Costs of upwards of $12 per day – over $4,000 per year – are out of reach for the majority of people who are charged with crimes in the Cook County system. Neither of the other electronic monitoring programs in Cook County – the Cook County Sheriff’s Program nor the office of the chief judge’s program – requires participants to pay for monitoring. Any new contract should follow the lead of those two programs and also assess no fees to participants.
The evidence supporting the use of SCRAM is mixed, and it is not clear that these devices provide true public safety benefits. If they are effective, both manufacturers and researchers agree that they should be reserved for people who repeatedly drive drunk. Cook County is not using these devices in line with the evidence regarding their effectiveness.
We know very little about the way these devices are assigned to individuals. We don’t know what most people assigned SCRAM devices are charged with, how long they spend on the devices, how often they succeed or fail during monitoring, or how much they are charged for the devices. Any new contract should make clear, comprehensive reporting requirements for the companies that provide these devices, and that data needs to be made publicly available, so that we can properly assess who is being placed on this program, what its costs are, and if it is effective.
We cannot continue to allow a private company to profit off of individuals moving through the court system. SCRAM’s use needs to be carefully circumscribed to the cases where independent evidence shows that it may be effective, and all costs for program participants must be abolished.
At the second Board of Commissioners meeting on September 22, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts provided written testimony to urge against a Cook County Sheriff Office (CCSO) request to increase and extend their contract with Track Group, Inc., which is the private company that provides the CCSO with pretrial electronic monitoring devices.
In late 2020, Chicago Appleseed contracted with the Cook County Justice Advisory Council (JAC) to provide technical assistance for a review of the pretrial electronic monitoring (EM) programs in Cook County. Along with CGL Companies, we were commissioned to develop recommendations for improvement of these programs. After two years of research and review, the report was finally published and scheduled for discussion at the Board of Commissioners meeting on September 22. At the same time, the Sheriff’s Office requested an increase and extension of their contract with a private contract, Track Group, Inc.
In our testimony, we urged the Board of Commissioners to review the report before considering the Sheriff’s request because of the report’s findings. The report points out issues with Cook County’s bifurcated administration of the programs and the massively outsized populations in the electronic monitoring programs. We believe that any expansion of the CCSO’s EM program would be grossly premature.
Here’s our full testimony:
Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts urges the Cook County Board of Commissioners not to approve the Cook County Sheriff’s Office’s (CCSO) proposed agenda item for an amendment to…increase its contract with Track Group, Inc. (File #22-3772).
In late 2020, along with CGL Companies, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts contracted with the Cook County Justice Advisory Council (JAC) to provide technical assistance for their review of the pretrial electronic monitoring (EM) programs in Cook County. After two years of research and subsequent review, the Justice Advisory Council’s Electronic Monitoring Review Final Report (“JAC Report”) is also on the agenda for today’s Board of Commissioners’ meeting (File #22-5130). The JAC Report includes a variety of findings and recommendations that must be given thorough consideration by the Commissioners before any future electronic monitoring contracts (i.e., with Track Group, Inc.) are…increased.
The JAC Report seeks to understand how the two pretrial electronic monitoring programs in Cook County – the Adult Probation Department’s Home Confinement Unit (HCU), run by the Office of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and the Community Corrections Bureau of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) – function, how they compare nationally to other jurisdictions, and provides eleven detailed recommendations for improvement of the system. Overall, the Justice Advisory Council’s report concludes that “the use of electronic monitoring in Cook County has several problematic features that are inconsistent with research” and, to that end, makes eleven detailed recommendations on ways to improve the programs’ functioning. The first recommendation made is for Cook County to undertake a strategic planning process to ensure its EM program(s) are consistent with national standards. Additional recommendations include but are not limited to:
(1) Cook County should dramatically shrink its pretrial electronic monitoring population. We are a national outlier in our heavy use of pretrial electronic monitoring. The report explains: “As of March 2021, Cook County has by far the largest number of persons monitored with this technology of any major urban jurisdiction in the United States,” with New York City and Los Angeles County (much larger systems) having about 1,150 and 336 people on pretrial EM, respectively, compared to the over 5,000 people on house arrest in Cook County today. All evidence shows that EM does not meaningfully influence rearrest or appearance rates of people awaiting trial – most people (82%) on electronic monitoring appear at all court dates and less than 1% of people on pretrial EM are rearrested for allegations of violence – so a dramatic reduction of the size of program should have no influence on public safety.
(2) The Cook County Sheriff should no longer have control over pretrial electronic monitoring and the two programs should be consolidated under the Office of the Chief Judge or a statewide pretrial services office instead. The JAC Report explains that the bifurcation of the pretrial EM programs is unusual compared to pretrial supervision systems across the country and the costs to Cook County taxpayers appear to far outweigh the benefits. The current overlap of the two programs “impairs coordination of pretrial release programs and increases costs, without providing discernible benefits to the County,” according to the report. While the JAC Report states that “neither program is perfect, the OCJ program provides a better model for a pretrial release monitoring program [than the Sheriff’s program].”
(3) The report finds that the Sheriff’s incarcerate first, ask questions later policy for people who have allegedly broken conditions of pretrial release violates people’s rights and should therefore be replaced with a system that requires an explicit order by a judge. Although data shows that a significant portion of the alleged violation alerts for people on EM are false alarms, incarceration decisions are not currently made by a judge, but are instead left up to the Sheriff’s staff. Judges should be in charge of making final decisions about whether or not a person is incarcerated to ensure that everyone’s constitutional rights are protected.
Before the Cook County Board of Commissioners makes any decisions about the…increase of the Sheriff’s Office contract with Track Group, Inc., Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts strongly recommends that the Commissioners consider the recommendations of the Justice Advisory Council. Of utmost concern for today’s meeting is that the JAC Report shows that electronic monitoring offers no real benefit to public safety or community wellbeing, and is, in fact, much more costly than necessary. Despite all available evidence that shows there is no discernible public safety benefit to the large-scale electronic surveillance of people awaiting trial, the total amount spent on pretrial electronic monitoring for FY 2022 was $35.5 million ($11.1 million by the HCU and $24.4 by the CCSO). Still, the Sheriff is asking that County taxpayers provide another $4,144,344 to extend the contract with Track Group Inc. for another two years.
Cook County taxpayers already spend copious amounts of money on a program that harms more people that it helps. Research demonstrates that the “generalized use of electronic monitoring for released defendants, beyond those cases with a clear public safety interest, may then produce worse outcomes for defendants and the community.” The Board of Commissioners would be doing the community a disservice by approving the Sheriff’s proposed contract amendment with Track Group, Inc. before taking the steps recommended by the Justice Advisory Council.
Cook County’s reliance on pretrial electronic monitoring is often framed as an “alternative to incarceration,” but research and personal stories continually counter that narrative.
People who are electronically surveilled by the state pretrial face barriers to their employment, schooling, medical care, and family and social lives, which negatively impacts their economic, social, and overall well-being. These systems contribute to racial disparities, with the total number of Black people on pretrial EM (75%) being three times more than the county’s total Black population (23%). Evidence shows that significantly reducing pretrial electronic monitoring will benefit our communities and can be done without impacting public safety.
For more information about electronic monitoring and conditions of pretrial release, visit https://www.chicagoappleseed.org/tag/pretrial-fairness/.