ELECTRONIC MONITORING
Program Overview
The objective of the Madison County Juvenile Court electronic monitoring program is to provide a form of effective and intensive supervision to youth in the juvenile court system. The continuation of a comprehensive monitoring program will provide the Juvenile Court with an additional form of community-based supervision focused around working with delinquent children in their own community. A monitoring program will allow the courts to expand on the graduated sanctions concept while preserving community safety and holding juvenile offenders accountable. In turn, Madison County hopes to sustain the decreased the number of juvenile commitments to the Alabama Department of Youth Services through the use of electronic monitoring/ home detention by utilizing local treatment resources. The electronic monitoring program is once again considered to be a graduated sanction and not a last resort to secure custody. All juveniles who fail to cooperate or comply with the Electronic Monitoring program will be subject to additional programming to include the Family In-Home Treatment Program (F.I.T.), community service, out-patient programming counseling or placement with another appropriate agency to include private or state funded treatment programs The goal of Electronic Monitoring is to ensure that the program is helping the court achieve its goals of promoting compliance with the terms of their court orders. Electronic monitoring is intended as a tool to help probation safely supervises youth in the community and to help youth successfully complete the terms of their probation without the use of secure custody. Electronic Monitoring is utilized as a graduated sanction in efforts to discourage accelerated delinquency and provide and alternative to ADYS programs for youth who cannot be served by probation alone. Electronic monitoring is also used for juveniles who have been released from detention pending future trials. The goal of the program is to implement a form of home detention for purposes of avoiding secure custody placement. Electronic monitoring provides an accountability sanction for juvenile’s who experience curfew violations, runaway issues, school truancy, probation violations, repeat offending, drug offenders in treatment and juveniles who may be considered a risk to the community (i.e. sex offenders). Electronic monitoring is also a valuable detention alternative to younger juveniles in the court system and juveniles who suffer from aggravated medical conditions.