Melissa Moody, an administrative district judge for the Fourth Judicial District in Ada County, Idaho is giving drunk driving defendants a choice: stay in jail or agree to wear an alcohol monitoring ankle bracelet and get released. As reported in the Idaho Statesmen, the district judge is an advocate of the pretrial release program using the SCRAM bracelet. SCRAM Continuous Alcohol Monitoring bracelets are worn 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by the defendant and test for alcohol every 30 minutes through sweat that is excreted around the ankle. The transdermal technology detects alcohol consumption and reports it to the monitoring company daily.
The devices are helping to alleviate overcrowded jails since defendants are able to work and stay out of jail while being closely monitored. The defendant also pays out of pocket for the device, a huge saving to county taxpayers. The device requires complete sobriety and holds defendants accountable to their sobriety. Many of the defendants are moderate to high risk repeat offenders. The devices are used to monitor both pretrial and post-conviction as part of a plea agreement or when a defendant is released on probation or parole. The use of SCRAM continuous alcohol monitoring devices has had successful participant across the country with most completing their monitoring period without any alcohol consumption.