By Trina A. San Agustin
Variety News Staff

SOME Department of Corrections detainees may soon get an offer to spend the rest of their prison terms at home wearing ankle monitors, which are electronic monitoring devices, for about $15 a month, instead of staying in jail.
Department of Corrections director Robert Camacho and Supreme Court Chief Justice F. Philip Carbullido will meet Wednesday to discuss the criteria for the proposed program.
Currently, the electronic monitoring device is used for individuals on probation.
“There are a few individuals using the device. We are going to look at the option of having detainees pay to use the device. Those are things that are up for discussion,” said Camacho.
An inmate who takes up the offer will have to pay about $15 per month to use the electronic monitoring device.
Camacho said the plan would save the Government of Guam a substantial amount of money, as it costs the Department of Corrections about $15 a meal per inmate.
“Let’s say we have 200 detainees who pose little risk to the community. We can have them placed under house arrest instead of having the government footing their bill which costs anywhere from $80 to $97 a day,” Camacho said. “So if we look at it this way, we may be able to save a substantial amount of money.”
Camacho and Carbullido will discuss the criteria that have to be met by inmates during their meeting at 10 a.m. tomorrow in Carbullido’s chambers.
“It depends on what the criteria would be and we have to discuss that. It will be discussed, not in its entirety, on Wednesday, but just enough to get a checklist of who qualifies as a ‘low risk’ detainee. If he meets a subjective classification, then the detainee would be offered the ankle monitor. I am sure that the detainees would take that option rather than staying in the detention facility,” Camacho added.
Camacho is hopeful that the program comes to fruition. He said the Agana detention facility can hold less than 100 detainees, while the excess is taken to the main correctional facility in Mangilao.
If the proposed program works out, it won’t cost the Department of Corrections anything, according to Camacho. The only impact on the department, he said, will come if the detainee or his family cannot afford the ankle monitor.
“Either way, I would rather pay $15 a month for each detainee than to be paying the $15 a meal to keep him locked up. The numbers are clear just on food alone,” Camacho said.
Additionally, the program would save on medical bills. If a detainee becomes ill and needs to be hospitalized, the Department of Corrections incurs those costs.
“We have had inmates that stay in the hospital for two or three months and it cost us $100,000. These are things that we have to look at and try to protect the government from incurring such costs. If the (detainee) is outside on some kind of release program, we won’t be obligated to pay these bills,” Camacho said.
Camacho added that not all detainees are in the best of health.
He said the proposed program on Guam is now being tried in overcrowded correctional facilities in the U.S. mainland.
Camacho also said that there is a company on island that can handle the anticipated demand for ankle monitors if the plan is approved.