Oakland County (WWJ) -- It's a cost-saving measure that's being used in several Michigan counties and across the nation -- an electronic tether that allows the person wearing the device to be tracked over a wider area, both indoors and out.
Bill Bullard, Chair of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, told WWJ Newsradio 950's Pat Sweeting the device is being used as part of a pilot project in Oakland County. The aim is reducing jail overcrowding.
"People don't generally realizes this, but we're mandated to keep our jail population under a certain limit, by state law -- 1,825" Bullard said. "Our new tether program is designed to realize up to thirty inmates a day from the jail," he said.
Bullard said the program is only for low-risk offenders. Inmates are carefully screened by a judge and only released under certain conditions. All inmates are required to serve half of their sentence behind bars.
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