Prosecutor offers to reduce price of ankle monitors for low-income jail inmates

A top local prosecutor said Thursday that his office is ready to make some changes to cut or eliminate prices for a controversial ankle-monitoring program for some accused criminals.

At the end of a six-hour hearing, 5th Circuit prosecutor Dan Goldberg told Judge Clifton Newman his office would be receptive to a GPS monitoring system in which poor defendants would pay reduced fees, or no fees at all to get out of jail until their trials.

The fee issue is a main point of contention in the Richland County courthouse hearing, which was an unusual public legal dispute between the county public defender’s office, which represents indigent clients in criminal actions, and prosecutors.

Up to now, only people who can afford to pay the $259 monthly fee could get ankle monitors, without which judges won’t let them out of jail.

Newman did not rule on the challenge of the program from Public Defender Fielding Pringle. She argued it is not constitutional to have one system of justice for the poor and another for the rich.

At end of the hearing, Newman said that among the issues he must weigh are:

▪  Is it constitutional to deny indigent defendants the ability to get out of jail with an ankle monitor?

▪  Does Newman, a circuit judge, have the authority to overturn the order of another circuit judge, Robert Hood, who approved the program?

▪  Did Hood’s order violate a rule that gives approval authority for such programs to the chief justice of the S.C. Supreme Court?

▪  What would be the effect on public safety in the community if Newman were to overturn the program?

The judge indicated he is skeptical about some features of the program, including such close monitoring of defendants who have not been found guilty. “That seems curious,” Newman said.

Fees are $179.50 for the first two weeks, then $259 per month afterward, said Emily Burn, the first witness to take the stand. Burn is the manager of the program for her employer, Offender Management Services. In addition, there are additional costs if the defendant pays by credit card, she said.

Burn testified that satellites track defendants “every single minute of the day and report the track position every 10 minutes.”

Currently, the program is tracking about 200 defendants, she said.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 12:23 PM with the headline "Prosecutor offers to reduce price of ankle monitors for low-income jail inmates."