Chief Probation Officer Bill Damiano responds to questions about in-home detention, electronic monitoring and repeat offenders

When I posted about the meeting Operation Safe Streets held at the Vets Hall, Mitch Trachtenberg raised the issue of in-home detention and electronic monitoring. Since Probation operates that program, both District Attorney Maggie Fleming and Eureka Police Chief referred me to Chief Probation Officer Bill Damiano.


Chief Probation Officer Bill Damiano's response:

Probation operates both adult and juvenile alternative to detention programs - home detention, pretrial supervision and electronic monitoring.

Participation in the juvenile program is typically determined by a Probation Officer early in the adjudication process (like immediately upon booking at juvenile hall), but also sometimes by the juvenile court judge (if retained in custody until a detention hearing, or as a juvenile hall commitment once adjudicated).  Juvenile offenders with minimal delinquency histories and who are assessed as low risk to fail to appear or commit a new crime pending court proceedings typically do not have an electronic monitor (EM) placed on them and remain on home supervision until their case is adjudicated or dismissed.  Those serving a juvenile hall commitment will  have an EM.

Participation in the adult program has different avenues for determining placement:
Pretrial (supervised) release – typically determined by the Court at OR/Bail hearing after assessment by our Probation/Sheriff Office staffs assigned to the program and a report is provided the judge.  This is a court-ordered release pending court proceedings through sentencing.  A person on the pretrial program may or may not be placed on EM based on staff’s determination of level of risk to FTA or commit a new offense pending adjudication, as assessed with our pretrial risk assessment instrument (an actuarial tool specific to pretrial release decisions).  No jail credits are earned for this as the offenders are not considered detained.
Home Detention – a case that has been sentenced to jail time where the Court specifically stipulates that the sentence be is to be served on EM.  This is a court-ordered release to Probation for supervision post-sentence.  Jail credit is earned.
As a condition of formal felony probation – a case placed on felony probation typically has a standard condition giving the probation officer discretion to place an offender on electronic monitor in response to a (typically technical) violation of probation where a revocation proceeding is not being sought.  This option has no court process involved.  This is usually only considered if the person is determined to be a minimal risk to public safety.  In other words, the addition of structure and controls is likely to address the violation behavior and get the person back on track with their conditions of probation.  No jail credit is offered/earned as, again, the person is not detained in the legal sense of the term, but is having their freedoms constrained/controlled.

Any of these programs could apply to a “repeat offender”, whether they are an adult or juvenile.   Of course, every adult person booked into the jail has the legal option of bail release, which carries no EM option through Probation.