Mr. Michel: iSECUREtrac Corp. provides a suite of electronic monitoring systems, including GPS tracking, remote alcohol monitoring, house arrest systems and biometric voice verification, as well as client management software and intense monitoring services for use in community supervision. The data provided by the company's equipment and software concerning a client's location and status better enables effective compliance management and positive behavior modification. So at a high level, we are in the business of assisting our public agency customers in their community corrections activities. But at a macro level, we help individuals make better choices about their behavior and significantly reduce the cost to society of overall community supervision, both of which have a very positive impact on society.
TWST: What trends do you predict will influence the industry over the next few years?
Mr. Michel: The most significant trend we are seeing is simply that the use of global positioning satellite tracking is going to increase dramatically. The cost of incarceration has continued to rise and has gotten so high that state and county agencies simply cannot afford the levels of populations they've had incarcerated. The effect of this is that state and county agencies will be forced to incarcerate fewer people for budgetary reasons and release prisoners earlier than projected. A subset of those two groups of people who are put back into the community require an intensive level of community-based supervision, which is what GPS tracking is all about. So I think that you are going to see the industry, driven by the reality of governmental budget shortfalls, driving an increase in the use of technology, more information systems and less incarceration. The end result is that we can have public safety at far lower costs. Aside from the lower cost of community supervision, GPS tracking provides secondary benefits to society. Keeping people functioning effectively in their communities under strict supervision to keep them out of trouble enables them to remain or become taxpayers, to remain or become employed, to interact with their families, and for the probation/parole officers to really assist them in turning their lives around. So the supervision allowed by GPS tracking truly does monitor compliance with court orders and assists in modifying behavior. It is a very important tool, which will enable the probation and parole officers to increase their caseloads - they will be able to do more with less.
The underlying trend that is going on here is really a maturation of the technology - the internet, cellular phones and GPS devices. These technologies are at such a level today that it's very effective, very reliable, and information collected can be admissible in court. The admissibility issue is very important in that the GPS data is capable of putting someone back in prison, if that is appropriate, for non-compliance, or in other cases to eliminate an individual as a suspect when the GPS data shows them nowhere near the vicinity of a crime. Once a person starts to comply with his or her court-ordered behavior pattern, they realize very quickly that, "Hey, I really can keep out of trouble, and I can be a successful citizen." Once they have been on electronic monitoring, these people are not going to go back inside. Therefore, the reduction of recidivism and re-offense is dramatic. It's a very favorable outcome for both the individual and society as a whole. As you look at the positive societal benefits, electronic monitoring has a positive budgetary impact, and we are evolving to a position where fewer and fewer taxpayer dollars are going to be used to support this kind of program. Going forward, we anticipate a growth in programs which have the individual offenders pay a for their electronic monitoring, e-based on their ability to pay. As such, we further reduce the burden of the revenue shortfall the state and local governments are experiencing.
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