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Community Correction granted approval to change GPS vendor, saving money, keeping quality

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 at 12:00 AM

By Kathy Bottorff

Marshall County Community Corrections Director, Beau Holcomb, was given approval to contract with a new GPS and software vendor during the Commissioner’s meeting Monday morning.

The biggest expense outside of wages for the department is GPS monitoring and software. Holcomb said he wanted to see what else was available without sacrificing quality for cost cutting.  He and his team found a vendor they liked, and it will save the county a total of $141,000 over the life of the three-year contract. 

Currently Community Corrections uses Total Court Services, which charges $4.10 per day per client, about $11,000 monthly and an estimated $132,000 annually.  The new provider is Alcohol Monitoring Systems, and their daily cost is $2.95.  That is about $7,080 monthly and approximately $80,000 annually.      

Holcomb said the county has used Alcohol Monitoring Systems in the past but at that time they were only a hardware vendor and not a software vendor.  He said they are now doing both.

Holcomb said Judge Sarber and the Community Corrections Advisory Board have both agreed to make the change.  Holcomb said Probation and Pre-trial services are already using Alcohol Monitoring Systems in Marshall County.   

The County Commissioners unanimously agreed to change the vendor for GPS monitoring and software and move forward with the request.  Holcomb said he hopes to have the new system in place by Christmas.    

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