To what extent can high-tech home monitoring replace straight jail time? Freeborn County hopes to find an answer to that question, which is critical for projecting future inmate numbers.

County Commissioner Dan Belshan believes that extending the use of Electronic Home Monitoring (EHM) can significantly reduce the jail population, and asked a service providing company to present the system to the county board during a workshop Tuesday.

“I believe EHM can handle anybody who is eligible for a work-release program,” DeAnna M. Shaikoski of Midwest Monitoring Surveillance told commissioners.

The system consists of a tracking device put on the wrist or ankle, an alcohol detector and a data transmitter.

Instead of going to jail, offenders stay at home with restrictions on the range they can move away from the home, or are required to go through a detector test regularly. The company monitors the offenders and reports their status to the county.

The cost for the monitoring is $8 a day for the alcohol detector and $14 for the tracking system, and the costs are billed to the offender.

Fifty out of 117 beds in a new jail the county has been planning would be for work-release inmates. A majority of offenders currently on a waiting list for serving in the jail is eligible for the work-release program. Belshan and other supporters say the county could build a smaller jail if it employed EHM more to cut the jail population.

While Shaikoski emphasized that the EHM can significantly suppress a burden the jail bears and the cost of managing the offenders, two judges in the county said the use of the system should be an exception rather than a rule.

“We use it because of the overcrowding in the jail. Once the space problem is resolved, I’m not going to use it,” Judge John Chesterman said.

“It is a privilege, and I don’t want to extend the use of it,” Judge James Broberg agreed.

Sheriff Don Nolander pointed out that the system is not appropriate for all work-release-eligible offenders, and anybody under the EHM can be taken back to the jail if they violate the conditions of their release.

Consideration of construction contracts for the new judicial center was also a topic in the workshop.

The county can choose to hire a construction management firm to administrate and oversee the project, or let a general contractor handle the whole operation.

Commissioner Glen Mathiason expressed his willingness to have an alternative estimate for the construction done by a different architect, while Board Chairman Dave Mullenbach suggested the county might need to assess the demand for vacating the 1954 administrative building and adding another floor on the new judicial center as part of its developing courthouse plan.

Belshan and others have complained that the county should consider architects other than the county’s principal firm, BKV Group of Minneapolis. And some citizens, including a past courthouse committee, have suggested the 1954 &uot;yellow&uot; building should be razed, saying it is poorly designed, difficult to retrofit with new technology and doesn’t match the look of the older portion of the courthouse.