http:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/audio\/2014\/05\/community-corrections-technology-national-law-enforcement-corrections-technology-center\/<\/a><\/p>\n[Audio Begins]<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 From the nation\u2019s capital this is DC Public Safety. I\u2019m your host Leonard Sipes, back at our microphones, Joe Russo. The program today is focusing on community corrections technology. Always a joy to have Joe back at our microphones. Joe is with the University of Denver and he currently serves as the Director of Corrections Technology Center of Excellence, a program within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center. Joe, welcome back to DC Public Safety.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Hi, Len, always a pleasure to be with you.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Always a pleasure to have you. You are by far I think one of our most popular shows that we\u2019ve had in the past. So, ladies and gentlemen, we\u2019re going to be talking about a variety of issues today, satellite tracking, we\u2019re going to be talking about drug and alcohol testing, leveraging video conferencing, which I find really exciting, officer safety developments, and social media, the development of an issue paper with the American Probation and Parole Association. Joe, let\u2019s start off with satellite tracking. What\u2019s happening there?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Well, I just want to make your audience aware that NIJ, National Institute of Justice funded a project to develop standards for offender tracking systems is ongoing and approaching completion. This standard is the first of its kind and was designed by practitioners, practitioner informed process, to establish performance standards, robustness standards, safety and circumvention detection standards around these systems. These systems have been in existence for quite some time and there is no industry standard for these devices. And so NIJ thought it was important based on practitioner input and created a project to develop these standards and these are nearing completion in the new future. And the next step is we\u2019ll be evaluating some of the test methods that we\u2019ve developed to make sure that they\u2019re efficient and effective and the most appropriate way to go about evaluating these tools and making sure that they\u2019re up to par for public safety use.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And we at the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, my agency, here in Washington DC, we\u2019ve been instrumental in developing those standards, correct?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yes. In fact Carlton Butler, who I believe recently retired from your agency was one of the members of our special technical committee and he was very instrumental in that process. Carlton was one of a number of community corrections professionals from across the country who came together regularly to discuss their needs around offender tracking technology, where the technology was lacking and what standards should be in place to protect the public.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Now, the interesting thing is that, let me throw out a couple observations and tell me if I\u2019m correct or incorrect, satellite tracking, GPS satellite tracking is exploding within this country in terms of supervising people on supervision, right?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 It\u2019s growing rapidly. I hesitate to agree that it\u2019s exploding. I think depending on who you talk to, certainly the vendors wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s exploding, or their bottom lines would be exploding as well, but it is growing, it\u2019s definitely growing. One of the key issues in this area and one that associations or government should take a look at is really getting a good sense for the market, how many offenders are on tracking. It\u2019s very difficult to get that number. If you talk to experts from across the country the best that they can give you are just estimates based on previous surveys and formal surveys. So that\u2019s something that I think that the field needs. But overall when you compare it to the number of people who\u2019re on community supervision, it\u2019s a very small percentage. So, again, there\u2019re many ways to answer that question, whether it\u2019s growing, but it could be fully utilized for sure.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 But I\u2019m thinking of two major research reports, one out of Florida and one out of California that indicated dramatically lower rates of recidivism, dramatically lower rates of technical violations, and reduced rates of arrest while under supervision. So satellite tracking research, GPS research seems to be promising.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Absolutely. As you say, both the Florida studies and the California studies show reductions in recidivism. I think that like any technology or like any program, things evolve and things are dynamic. And these two studies should not be considered the be-all and end-all. I think we still, there\u2019s still a lot of room for us as an industry, as a field, to grow academically, to understand better how GPS can best be applied to achieve the outcomes that we desire. For example, I don\u2019t believe either study took a look at how GPS performed with or without treatment services and we might learn that GPS providing lifestyle structure combined with treatment services where needed produces an even greater effect. So, yeah, the initial research has been very promising and I think that further research is needed and it can only probably be better applied in the future.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 But a standard, as I understand it from most of the research done on community corrections, is that if there is a social services component, and I know that\u2019s vague enough to drive a bus through, but if there\u2019s treatment involved along with the supervision package, it\u2019s been the treatment component of it that has been particularly successful in the past. So that\u2019s a good point. Satellite tracking combined with treatment, depending upon the quality of the treatment and the intensity of the treatment, could have us real implications for keeping people out of further activity and keeping them out of the prison system.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Absolutely. And it touches on issues, for example, in terms of dosage, what\u2019s the appropriate dosage of satellite tracking, do people need to be on satellite for extended lengths of time, is there a point of diminishing returns. The more research we have, the more we understand the dynamics, the better we can apply that technology and get better outcomes at a better cost.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Now, the interesting thing is that I\u2019ve read a draft copy of your report in terms of the development of the technology standard, it was pretty doggone comprehensive. It was large; it was very detailed, very technical. So this is the first time that GPS and satellite tracking has been examined by the Corrections Technology Center of Excellence under the National Law Enforcement and Correction Technology Center\u2019s system. I mean this is the first time it really has been systematically examined in terms of how people use satellite tracking, GPS tracking, and possibly what are the best uses of satellite and GPS tracking.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yes. And we deal quite a bit on the issue in what we call the Selection and Application Guide, which is designed to help agencies interpret the technical standard and use the information in their programs across the country. So the technical standard would speak more towards performance metrics of how the technology should work in the Selection and Application Guide, as you allude to, address more of the potential applications, how is the technology used to address or to achieve the outcomes that are desired.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Is that available yet \u2013?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Drafts are \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 To the public?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. Drafts are available. But all of the documents that were produced, the standard Selection and Application Guide, were recently put out for public comment in January of this year and they\u2019re all available.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 All right, so they\u2019re still available for public comment.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 The public comment period has concluded.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 But those drafts I believe are still on the web somewhere.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And how do they get them?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 I would go to the NIJ website.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay. The National Institute \u2013<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 National Institute of Justice.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 National Institute of Justice Website. And we\u2019ll have the link in our show notes regarding that. Okay. The efforts to promote information sharing, one, this is I think unique, because now for the first time we\u2019ve had literally hundreds of organizations around the Unites States and beyond, from what I understand, talking to each other in terms of how they use satellite tracking, what the pitfalls are, what the difficulties are, what the remedies are. And I think that\u2019s probably one of the biggest things that came out of your effort, the fact that now people are talking to each other.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. The best way to learn is from your colleagues and from your colleague\u2019s experiences and whatever network can kind of occur on that level is just tremendous. There\u2019s no sense reinventing the wheel. There\u2019s much we can learn from our colleagues, as you mentioned, across the country, across the world. The National Institute of Justice has funded some specific projects to further information sharing of the data. That\u2019s pretty interesting. They funded the development of information exchange packet documentation, which will allow for technically data from different systems to be integrated and shared so that it could be utilized more effectively.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. Yeah. And this, again, came from recommendations from our practitioner groups. And they recommended that this be developed to address two major issues, one is public safety, and the other is resource allocation. The public safety element comes into play and was illustrated very well on the recent case in Orange County, where you had two homeless sex offenders recently arrested for the murder of a prostitute, and they found out that they had committed four murders over the course of time. Now, both offenders were tracked via GPS, they were supervised by different agencies, one by the Federal US Probation, the other by California Parole.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Oh, I remember that case.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. And they were monitored by vendor equipment. But obviously living in the same area, they were both homeless, both kind of tented up together, and they had been associating for some time prior. Now, technically there\u2019s no reason we can\u2019t share that information, but this information currently resides in individual jurisdiction\u2019s databases, individuals and their databases. And so part of the effort in developing this [PH 00:10:19] IETD, this information sharing mechanism, is to allow or facilitate better sharing of information. Again, it\u2019s not the answer, but if we have a better way to share information then we can more readily make some of these connections and someone can say why are these two offenders associating for so long regardless \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Interesting.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Of who\u2019s supervising them \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Now, also \u2013<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 And regardless of what vendor.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 This point of working on an automated analysis. If you talk to parole and probation people throughout the country they will tell you that GPS is really a tremendous amount of difficult work in terms of sifting through all of that data and analyzing all of that data. What does it mean? So working on an automated analysis system, what is that?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Well, basically as you say, the point is well taken. GPS is a tremendous tool, but it provides an overload of information for most agencies, too much information. And so there are techniques, there are tools that have been developed to help officers figure out what\u2019s important and what\u2019s not. One is the National Institute of Justice funded effort through the University of Oklahoma to develop a toolkit to help officers identify patterns of movement within their offender population that are of interest.<\/p>\n
A lot of agencies across the country are required to review location points of their offenders on a daily basis. I mean literally point by point by point. Part of the goal of this study from Oklahoma was to develop a toolkit that would allow an officer to approve a pattern of behavior, so a daily record of location points, and then store that approval, and so the next time or the next day, if the offender has the same general pattern there\u2019s no need to review those points. However, if there\u2019s a divergence in that pattern then the officer is alerted to that divergence and they can look further into what divergence occurred, when did it occur, where did the offender go, and usually that is a starting point for gathering more information.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Really interesting, really interesting. The potential for protective analysis, that all falls into that in terms of what you just said.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 It\u2019s part and partial. I think that for some time agencies have been looking into thinking about big data and data mining to help them make better decisions over the years. And I believe your agency has used GIS systems to better understand how the issue of place has the relevance and a context in offender\u2019s lives and where they work, where they live, are there services that are in those areas, can they get to services, is there public transportation for example. Use of predictive analysis has not yet reached the point of dynamic input. So we have all this wealth of information about GPS, we have a lot of offenders on GPS; we have a lot of location points not only in one jurisdiction, but across the nation; a lot offenders. So is there a way to mine all of the data to make some determinations, to create some hypotheses about is there a pattern of movement that correlates to success through revision, is there a pattern of movement or behavior that correlates to failure, are there dynamics factors that might tell you that a person is headed for failure or success.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Well, I think considering the amount of GPS being used currently and people interested in it and people looking at it, I think all of these are pretty interesting developments and really fascinating. Before we get to the break let\u2019s start with advances in drug and alcohol testing. Fingerprint analysis?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. This is an interesting approach. It was developed by a company in the UK, and basically what they\u2019re using is a portable way of measuring the secretions from fingerprints, so fingerprint oils, sweat that gets released through your fingerprint. They\u2019ve developed technology that\u2019s able to analyze those secretions for drug use. So it could provide a very noninvasive, easily used, low cost alternative to your analysis.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Huh, through fingerprints?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Through fingerprints. Yeah.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 That\u2019s really interesting. Remote mobile breath analysis?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. This an area that\u2019s gained a lot of traction in recent years. There\u2019re number of different products that have just been introduced to the market. And the idea was to kind of provide a less intrusive, less costly alternative to the secure transdermal monitoring bracelets that are existing now that are on offender\u2019s legs. These are basically handheld units that an offender was prompted to breathe into and it takes an alcohol sample remotely. The technology confirms the identification of the offender either through photograph or facial recognition or breath print, depending on the technology, and it can note the offender\u2019s location point via built-in GPS chips.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Now \u2013<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 So \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Is this mobile breath analysis simply for alcohol or both drugs and alcohol?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Currently it\u2019s just for alcohol.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 But \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And considering the alcohol problem that we have in terms of people under supervision that\u2019s a fairly considerable advancement.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Oh, absolutely. Alcohol\u2019s a major contributor to crime as you know. So it\u2019s a very important tool.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Facial thermo-patterns, tell me about that, and we\u2019ll go to the break.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. This is kind of interesting, as we go through our research in finding emerging technologies, this one crossed our desk. Basically it\u2019s a development in alcohol testing that came from researchers in Greece. They\u2019ve looked into thermal imaging as a way to determine whether a person is inebriated or not. So basically they\u2019ve taken heat maps of people\u2019s faces, people who\u2019re sober and people who\u2019re inebriated, and they\u2019re able to tell through different algorithms what the characteristics of an inebriated person are. For example, they\u2019ve determined that a person who is drunk, their nose tends to be much warmer than their forehead, and they can tell this through the thermal imaging.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Well, I can think of about a thousand bars that probably could use that equipment. Joe, let me quickly reintroduce you. Ladies and gentlemen, we were talking today Joe Russo. The show is on community corrections technology. Joe is with the University of Denver, he\u2019s currently the Director of Corrections Technology Center of Excellence, a program within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center System. Joe, go ahead and continue. And like I said, I can think of not a thousand, but probably 100 thousand bars that need facial thermo-patterns technology in that bar to tell whether or not they\u2019re drunk or not.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Exactly. Yeah. I mean it\u2019s a pretty innovative approach, and obviously if you can make a determination about intoxication from a distance, perhaps that provides greater advantages. And there\u2019s no telling as this technology develops whether this can be deployed at a short distance or a longer distance to determine inebriation patterns among crowds. For example, after a sporting event it might help law enforcement agencies kind of focus potentially problematic groups. So really it has a lot of potential.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 How would you employ it?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see anything in the material that talked about how this was structured. I assume it\u2019s a thermal imaging camera, but with a telescopic type lens maybe this could really work from a wide distance. Certainly in a community corrections application it would just be a camera in front of a person, you can get a reading very quickly. So, yeah, we\u2019ll be keeping an eye on that technology.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Now, the Holy Grail here is, I would imagine, remote \u2013 because what we\u2019re talking about in many ways is not only dealing with technology that tells either through the fingerprints or facial thermo-patterns, but remote devices, specifically on GPS and satellite tracking devices, that could tell whether or not a person is using alcohol or is inebriated. Does any of this apply to substance abuse yet as to whether or not people under supervision whether or not you can instantly tell they\u2019re using drugs remotely?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. There have been some companies who have delved into that area. I don\u2019t think that they\u2019re mature as yet. But as you mentioned, that is the Holy Grail, that\u2019s sort of the next horizon. We\u2019ve kind of conquered that for alcohol use and substance use is kind of the next level. And really, beyond that, I know that the practitioner groups that we talk to are going beyond illegal drugs, but they\u2019re interested in monitoring prescription drug use, both for abuse, using too much, or not using enough, because particularly with mental health clients if they\u2019re not on their medication \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Oh, that\u2019s a great point.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 That causes a whole myriad of problems that could easily be avoided. So one of the kind of the futuristic thinking approaches that we\u2019ve been looking at is how do we develop tools that remotely monitor prescription drug use, again, levels to make sure that they\u2019re taking the appropriate amount and we can avoid unfortunate situations later.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 In the same sort of conundrum that we currently have today in terms of synthetic drugs, where the combinations change from time to time, I mean it would be nice to have remote devices or new devices to deal with that issue as well. Because we could be testing for cocaine, we could be testing for marijuana, we could be testing for opiates, but testing for synthetic drugs, again, when the drugs constantly change, having some sort of new devices coming in and especially mobile devices, that would be an extraordinarily interesting development.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah, exactly. I mean the industry, drug testing industry, is coming with tests as quickly as they can. Obviously new tests are very research development intensive so the costs of these tests tend to be very high. But when the target keeps moving, I don\u2019t know the answer to that. How do you develop tests fast enough to detect these ever changing compounds?<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 All right, I find this interesting. Leveraging video teleconferencing, people under supervision reporting in via teleconference and also the treatment and service delivery via teleconference, talk to me about that.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. We\u2019ve seen this more and more in rural or remote settings. Agencies are exploring ways to more efficiently and effectively connect with their clients. There\u2019re many parts of the country where clients live miles and miles away from probation offices, and this obviously becomes a very resource-intensive proposition for officers to spend hours of time traveling to see one client. Compounding that, if they live in remote areas, there\u2019re typically no services available for them to capitalize on. So agencies across the country are looking at video teleconferencing services to try and bridge this gap. There\u2019s one agency in rural Kansas that serves a six county area, and rather than driving miles and miles every day, they\u2019re trying to use Skype to connect with their clients and do reporting in that way.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 So we\u2019re talking about, in terms of video, we\u2019re talking about using their Smartphones, using their tablets?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. Tablets, home computers, as long as they have internet connectivity then they can connect with their probation officer via Skype or another service.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And the same questions that that probation or parole agent would ask the person directly when they see them could be asked in terms of the provision of treatment and service delivery. I mean in terms of our own mental health caseload one of the principle questions we ask is, \u201cAre you taking your medications? Show me your medications. Are you taking them every day? Are you taking them as prescribed?\u201d So I would imagine that would enter into it.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. You can go through very much the same protocol that you would in an in person interview. I would imagine the only thing that might be lacking is that direct in person kind of look for effect and then things that just would not translate very well via video. But for the most part the interview protocol would remain the same.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 So, but the treatment part of it, are we talking about providing treatment services via teleconference?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Well, we\u2019ve learned that Nebraska Judicial Services is using in exactly. Again, they have a very remote rural section of their state, and rather than having offenders, again, drive miles to a central location to get services, they\u2019ve set up video conferencing systems in the county sheriff\u2019s departments, and offenders can just go to their local sheriff department and there\u2019s a video set for them to take \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Ah.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 [OVERLAY] classes, parenting, cognitive skill therapy, and \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Oh, that\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yeah. Yeah. So it\u2019s interactive and it\u2019s a very innovative approach to a difficult problem.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And I had a recent discussion this weekend with somebody who is, and I shouldn\u2019t identify the group at this stage of the game because they\u2019re just developing it, but they\u2019re talking about remote classes for correctional institutions, so all of this is really exciting. The last two issues in terms of the program, officer safety developments and a social media issue paper that was developed with the American Probation and Parole Association. Tell me about those.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Yes. Officer safety, we\u2019ve come across two interesting items. One is the use of GPS technology for lone workers. These are workers who are out in remote settings by themselves and where safety could become an issue. These systems are deployed in industry across the spectrum. Minnesota Department of Corrections has recently explored using this for their parole agents who work out in the field by themselves. These are typically GPS tracking devices as you would think of them on an offender, but the officer carries them, they have a man-down function, a [PH 00:24:25] duress alert, where the officer can communicate back with a central monitoring station, and the officer is tracked and located throughout their travels out there in the wild. Communications are achieved either through cellular, the network, if that\u2019s not available the technology can communicate via satellite communication so that the officer is never truly alone out there.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 But that\u2019s fascinating because it could apply to urban environments as well.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Any environment, exactly, particularly where officers are working by themselves it\u2019s a critical concern.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And I really like the fact that it has a man-down concept to it so if a person goes into a prone position there is an immediate alert sent to a central monitoring station.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Exactly. The other neat officer safety tool that we came across, and this might be a little futuristic, but we\u2019ve heard a presentation from researchers at MIT who developed clothing that can be used as a personal protective device. Basically they embed electronics into a jacket or outer garment that conducts electricity and energy. So the wearer is insulated, but if they activate their jacket, for example, and an aggressor touches them, they receive a shock.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Amazing.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 And the idea is to provide the officer enough space and time \u2013<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 To get out of a hand to hand combat type situation. So, again, for people working in the field alone, officers who don\u2019t carry firearms, this might be an interesting to consider in the future.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Final issue \u2013 and we only have a couple minutes left \u2013 social media. Again, you\u2019re working on in a paper with the American Probation and Parole Association about social media use. I see dozens of examples almost daily of people not just under supervision, but criminals or people of interest, going out and sitting in front of a, doing a YouTube video sitting in front of a stash of drugs and guns and talking about their exploits. So this is becoming rather common.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 There\u2019s no doubt. Social media is well established as a part of our lives in this day and age, whether we like it or not, particularly with the younger generation. So many of our offenders have this virtual presence. They maintain presence on social media. And to some extent it\u2019s irresponsible for community corrections agencies not to explore and look at how offenders are using social media because it is such an ingrained part of life. So this issue paper that we\u2019re developing is designed to help agencies understand what social media is, why it\u2019s important, what offenders are doing online, again, why it\u2019s important to monitor that activity, and some issues that they need to consider as they develop a policy about how their officers should use social media.<\/p>\n
There are some pitfalls about social media privacy issues, how to authenticate information that they may obtain via Facebook pages, for example, of their offenders, whether to do covert investigations, for example, where the officer might pretend to be someone else, establish a false identity. All of these are issues that agencies need to consider strongly, compare them to their missions and their goals, and really develop policies so that when officers do engage in this activity it\u2019s in direct alignment with the agency\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 We were talking before the program about being able to geocode, or all photos, if you GPS enabled on your phone or tablet, evidently the photos are geocoded. So we can figure not only what he was doing, because he\u2019s making a YouTube video, and I mean there\u2019re all sorts of other examples, but YouTube certainly does come to mind, but also figuring out exactly where he is.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Exactly. Yeah. That\u2019s a little known feature, and if you use a digital camera with location systems enabled you could very well be giving up your location, which of course works very well in the favor of probation and parole officers who\u2019re trying to determine if their offender is outside of jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 In the final 30 seconds or so. The bottom line behind all of the technology that we talked about today, Joe, is to ensure compliant behavior; is to keep people out of the prison system; is to prompt their good behavior, reduce technical violations; reduce rearrest, and reduce return to prison. So this has a fiscal note to it that could be very favorable to state and local agencies and it has research behind it that in essence says that people when they\u2019re monitored in these ways are far more compliant and they are just doing much better on parole and probation supervision, correct or incorrect?<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Exactly. It\u2019s all about outcomes. Technology is a tool and we have to be careful not to overuse it and over-supervise low-risk offenders. Ideally, we\u2019re using the appropriate level of technology to supervise offenders and dedicate more officer\u2019s valuable time on those high-risk cases that demand that interpersonal connection.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 And I\u2019m really glad you brought that up, because the real focus of most of this would be the high-risk offender.<\/p>\n
Joe Russo:\u00a0 Exactly, exactly. It\u2019s very easy to fall into a trap of applying technology across the board, but we have to really be more intelligent about how to use our limited resources.<\/p>\n
Len Sipes:\u00a0 Well, Joe, as always, I really do appreciate you coming onto the show today. And ladies and gentlemen, we did show with Joe Russo on community corrections technology. I always find it fascinating. We did discuss satellite tracking and alcohol and drug testing and teleconferencing and social media and lots of other things. Joe is with the University of Denver and currently serves as the Director of Corrections Technology Center of Excellence, a program within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center System. Ladies and gentlemen, this is DC Public Safety. We appreciate your comments, we even your criticisms, and please have yourselves a very pleasant day.<\/p>\n
[Audio Ends]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome to \u201cDC Public Safety\u201d \u2013 Radio and television shows, blog and transcripts on crime, criminal offenders and the criminal justice system. The portal site for \u201cDC Public Safety\u201d is http:\/\/media.csosa.gov. Radio Program available at http:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/audio\/2014\/05\/community-corrections-technology-national-law-enforcement-corrections-technology-center\/ [Audio Begins] Len Sipes:\u00a0 From the nation\u2019s capital this is DC Public Safety. I\u2019m your host Leonard Sipes, back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,38,50,39,21],"tags":[249,250,251,252,253,254,255],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiopodcast","category-gps","category-satellitegps-tracking","category-technology","category-whatworks","tag-corrections-technology","tag-drug-and-alcohol-testing","tag-officer-safety","tag-satellite-or-gps-tracking","tag-social-media-2","tag-supervision","tag-video-instruction","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pBoKk-iA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1153,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/1153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.csosa.gov\/podcast\/transcripts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}