Parole kiosks streamline offender check-in

Self-service has taken the drudgery out of many a routine task, and it is now making life better for probation officers.

They need the help, too. The typical probation officer has anywhere from 100 to 500 individuals he must deal with every month, and 10 to 20 percent of that number turns over monthly. The result is a paperwork swarm and a system that is strained to stressful levels.

Enter Automon Corp., a Scottsdale, Ariz. company whose kiosk systems aim to cut down on the number of appointments those officers have to keep — and make life easier on the parolee.

A system that pays for itself

Tom Jones, president and chief executive of Automon, said his company's machines automate the routine parts of the probationer check-in transaction: identity verification and interviews.

For decades, individuals on probation have had to pay a fee for what is known as "cost of supervision" — typically $20 to $50 per month, depending on the region. A bill acceptor on the front of the Automon kiosk accepts this fee, while a biometric hand scanner identifies the user.

While Automon is a software company, it does sell complete systems with hardware for about $75,000. Agencies can get their own kiosks and buy the software from Automon separately, but Jones said only 20 percent of customers go this route.

He added that many of his company's clients subsidize the cost of the machine with the cost-of-supervision fee — and some of them charge an additional fee for the privilege of using the kiosk.

Jones, who has worked as a lawyer and CPA, has bought and sold several companies, acquiring capital in the process. He and his associates founded Automon in 1996, and launched several test pilots in Florida. Today, 150 of the company's kiosks are installed across the country.

Importance of officer motivation

While the advantages of a streamlining system that essentially pays for itself may seem obvious, Jones points out that some situations are better suited for his company's services than others.

Jones believes that only areas with certain demographics maximize officer motivation for successful kiosk programs. Specifically, either densely populated urban areas, or, on the other extreme, sparsely populated rural areas, work best.

Urban areas have such a heavy appointment load that the advantages kiosks provide are obvious to parole officers, he said. There, the alleviation of strain on the system is immediately evident, and officers are enthusiastic about the kiosks. And in rural areas, where officers are relatively scarce, fear of job loss is low, making innovation less fraught with anxiety than it might otherwise be.

A force multiplier

Bob Anderson is director of community corrections for the 26th Judicial District in West Tennessee, which includes three counties. "We've had the kiosk for a number of years," he said. "It's been an outstanding system which allows the officers to handle more cases."

Anderson, who called the kiosk "a force multiplier," emphasized that it does not eliminate human contact — in fact, it improves relations between officer and parolee.

"We're getting away from the bunker mentality, so that my case officers can spend the majority of their time out in the field," he said. "If they've got defendants who work in construction, (the officers) actually go out on the construction sites. And if they've got somebody going to night school, wanting to go to a community college to get their GED, they can go out there in the evening and correspond."

Anderson gives the system high marks for ease of use. "It's been constantly upgraded," he said. "It's very user-friendly. Most of my officers and myself are not really computer literate, and the younger defendants are. They appreciate the ability to come in and get on the system."

Mutual respect

One parolee said the kiosk system has been a personal motivator. She had to prove herself before being allowed to use the system, paying all her court costs, passing drug tests and meeting regularly for a year with a parole officer.

She also found the kiosk easy to use despite her special education needs. "If I can do it, anyone can," she said. "It all takes about 5 minutes."

She contrasts the convenience of the kiosk with her year of meeting her parole officer. "If I couldn't get up here when I had to meet my P.O. then I just got in trouble." Now she can schedule her required kiosk check-ins to coincide with breaks from work and available rides from friends.

"It doesn't make me have to miss work at all," she said. "I can get on with my life."