High-Fashion Booze Bracelets Hit Record Milestone of 100 Million Alcohol Tests
DENVER, CO—Just four years after introducing a completely unknown technology to the corrections market, the alcohol-sniffing anklet made famous in 2007 by some of Hollywood’s high profile DUI offenders has hit a significant pop culture milestone: 100 million alcohol tests performed.
The SCRAM System (short for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor) conducted its 100 millionth alcohol test on December 9th, according to Colorado-based Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS), which manufactures and markets SCRAM throughout the U.S. Coincidentally, the 100 millionth test occurred on a subject in the City and County of Denver, though currently the bracelets are in use in 44 states and nearly 1,500 jurisdictions, according to Don White, vice president of Field Operations for AMS.
The system includes an ankle bracelet, which is strapped to a subject’s ankle and worn 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The bracelet actually samples a subject’s perspiration, at least once every hour, in order to measure for alcohol consumption. The system is designed specifically for the long-term monitoring of people required to abstain from alcohol, either as part of a court order, an alcohol offender management program or an addiction treatment plan. Known as Continuous Alcohol Monitoring (CAM), the SCRAM System is the only commercially-available CAM system on the market today.
According to AMS, the system has seen unusually rapid adoption in the field of community corrections because it’s the first tool available to help the courts manage and monitor alcohol offenders to the same degree that random drug testing has improved the supervision and treatment of drug offenders over the last few decades. “Unlike most drugs, alcohol metabolizes so rapidly in the body that unless you can test at least once every two hours for alcohol, you’re going to miss most drinking violations,” says White. AMS statistics show that 68 percent of those who complete SCRAM are fully compliant during their monitoring period, something that was essentially impossible to track or even estimate before the availability of a continuous testing protocol.
The sweat-sniffing ankle bracelets gained international notoriety in 2007 after a number of high-profile Hollywood celebrities wore SCRAM bracelets as part of Los Angeles County’s sentencing guidelines for DUI offenders. AMS says that while Hollywood gave SCRAM a reputation for being uncomfortable and clunky to wear, a new smaller, sleeker and more comfortable version of the bracelet will be available in February of 2008. The SCRAM System conducted more than 41 million alcohol tests on nearly 27,000 alcohol offenders in 2007 alone.
SCRAM has seen rapid adoption in the country’s largest counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Santa Clara and Sacramento Counties in California; Wayne, Macomb and Oakland Counties in Michigan; Marion County in Indiana; Cuyahoga and Franklin Counties in Ohio; St. Louis and St. Charles Counties in Missouri; Broward, Escambia and Volusia Counties in Florida; Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb and Bibb Counties in Georgia; Hennepin and Ramsey Counties in Minnesota; Lackawanna and Lycoming Counties in Pennsylvania; King County in Washington; Oklahoma, Tulsa and Cleveland Counties in Oklahoma; Maricopa County in Arizona; Clark and Washoe Counties in Nevada; Denver, Arapahoe, Jefferson, Adams, Larimer, Douglas and Boulder Counties in Colorado; and Dallas, Bexar, Tarrant, Travis and Harris Counties in Texas.
About Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc.
Established in 1997, Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc. manufactures SCRAM®, the world’s only Continuous Alcohol Monitoring system, which uses non-invasive transdermal analysis to monitor alcohol consumption.SCRAM fully automates the alcohol testing and reporting process, providing courts and community corrections agencies with the ability to continuously monitor alcohol offenders, increase offender accountability and assess compliance with sentencing requirements and treatment guidelines. Since its launch to the marketplace in 2003, SCRAM has monitored nearly 53,000 offenders and is now in use in 44 states. Alcohol Monitoring Systems employs 86 people across the U.S. and is a privately held company headquartered in Littleton, Colorado.