So now, we can pull people over via random roadblocks, and use SCRAM devices to monitor them, too. Of course, we have to disarm them, lest they get testy and uncooperative with all of the poking, prodding, and rights violations.
More:
The development of technology that detects and quantifies alcohol eliminated through the skin (transdermal alcohol monitoring [TAM]) has recently provided the capability for courts to enforce abstinence at a relatively low cost. Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS) Inc. manufactures the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring (SCRAM™) device, the most widely used TAM unit on the market. AMS has provided the authors with a full copy of the record system of all offenders on SCRAM devices since it began operations in 2002. The records of approximately 250,000 alcohol offenders in 48 states and the District of Columbia (DC) are included. This study involves a secondary analysis of that data. The focus is on specific information on the types of criminal offenses to which SCRAM is being applied and the characteristics of the offenders in the alcohol monitoring program. Between 2002 and 2011, the number of SCRAM units in use in the U.S. has grown to over 50,000 annually. Eight states have had more than 10,000 offenders using SCRAM over the years. Eighty percent of the offenders on the SCRAM have been males and 5% have been under the age of 21. Approximately 172,500 of the offenders placed on the SCRAM units have been DUI offenders. However, SCRAM has been used to monitor 21 other types of offenders including 8,000 for domestic violence, 7,000 for assault and 5,000 for larceny, robbery or burglary. The SCRAM unit is an example of an important, innovative technological device which makes possible the management of a behavioral change program that has received wide acceptance by the criminal justice system. This has been achieved without an independent evaluation of its effectiveness in producing a change in drinking behavior that persists beyond the termination of the SCRAM program. This preliminary study provides a background for the development of such an evaluation study.
