DENVER—Attendees at the upcoming Training Institute for the American Probation and Parole Association will do more than just “talk about” the industry’s only continuous alcohol testing product-they’ll have a chance to demo the ankle bracelet while they’re at the conference. Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS) will be exhibiting SCRAM© at the Resource Expo, which runs July 25-27, 2004, in Orlando.
SCRAM-The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor©¾ is an automated, remote, continuous alcohol testing system designed specifically for long-term monitoring of alcohol offenders. It delivers the best offender-management tool yet for assessing offenders for alcohol problems, detecting alcohol consumption 24 hours a day, and ultimately deterring them from drinking while they’re on the road to recovery. SCRAM is a breakthrough technology that community corrections, law enforcement, and treatment centers across the U.S. are using to attack the problem of alcohol and crime.
Since its launch in April of 2003, SCRAM has performed over 3.6 million alcohol tests on over 2,600 offenders. SCRAM is currently in use in close to 200 jurisdictions nationwide, including district, circuit, and specialty courts in Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Spokane, St. Louis, St. Paul, and Orange County, California.
These agencies are applying SCRAM in every phase of the court system, from assessment of first-time offenders to an alternative to incarceration.SCRAM provides fact-based results that help court professionals reliably classify offenders and determine best-practice treatment and sanction programs. SCRAM enables agencies to focus money and resources on offenders who need more comprehensive treatment and abstinence monitoring, or as a way to move low-risk offenders through the treatment and monitoring process at a quicker pace.
At last February’s APPA Winter Conference in Reno, AMS recruited and installed the SCRAM Bracelet on a dozen attendees just prior to a reception in the Resource Expo. “When you’re wearing the bracelet, you don’t know when you’re scheduled for a test, but you are aware when the system is sampling,” says White. “We also encouraged the wearers to tamper with the product (try to remove the bracelet or place something between the bracelet and the skin) so we could provide instant proof of the product’s tamper-protection capabilities,” added White.
“When it comes to evaluating innovative technology, seeing is believing. Seeing the SCRAM System sample, transmit, and report consumption and tamper data never fails to convince a judge or probation officer that continuous alcohol testing is the only way to strictly enforce 24/7 alcohol abstinence,” says Don White, vice president of Field Operations for AMS.
Volunteers wore the bracelets overnight, sleeping, showering, eating, and even attending sessions with the bracelets on. “That’s a key benefit of this system,” says White. “Offenders can go about the business of rebuilding their lives, rather than spending their time waiting for a test or traveling to testing centers.” Volunteers returned to the booth and viewed their test results on SCRAMNET, the Internet-based system that collects and stores the testing data.
Alcohol Monitoring Systems will again be demonstrating the product to volunteers in Orlando. Attendees interested in participating in the program are encouraged to visit the booth early on Sunday, July 25.
The American Probation and Parole Association’s annual conferences draw thousands of professionals from fields such as adult and juvenile probation, parole, restitution management, residential programs, treatment, and the judicial system. Representing over 35,000, APPA is an international nonprofit organization committed to realistic and effective probation, parole and community-based correctional programming.
About Alcohol Monitoring Systems
Established in 1997, Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc. manufactures the world’s only noninvasive alcohol-detection system that automatically tests for alcohol every hour, 24 hours a day, regardless of the individual’s location.SCRAM is the first alcohol testing technology to use transdermal analysis to determine an individual’s Blood Alcohol Content. SCRAM fully automates the alcohol testing and reporting process, providing community corrections agencies and treatment organizations nationwide with the ability to classify DUI offenders and assess compliance with sentencing requirements and treatment guidelines. Alcohol Monitoring Systems is a privately held company headquartered in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.