Improving the success of the Wood County Jail Electronic Monitoring Program

Liz Bush

Metrics

Community Size
Years
Course Title
Evidence-Based Decision-Making
Course Letter Acronym
PUBLHLTH
Course Number
780
Project Lead Faculty
Liz Bush

As incarcerated individuals attempt to return to the outside world after being released, they may face several barriers including challenges with finding employment, rekindling familial connections, establishing housing, and having restricted access to governmental assistance — to name a few (Simmons University, 2023). In addition to these challenges, being incarcerated is associated with higher rates of mental illness, which can further burden successful reintegration into society (Handunge, 2022). One potential solution to these obstacles is to develop an efficient electronic monitoring program (EMP) that allows incarcerated individuals to remain integrated in society. At Wood County Jail, an EMP is in place; however, there is no evaluation plan to evaluate the program’s effectiveness, and there is a lack of staff to help track those individuals who are on EMP. An effective EMP at Wood County Jail would decrease the number of individuals housed within the jail and may also decrease rates of recidivism. Thus, we aim to develop an evaluation plan to assess Wood County’s current EMP and provide Wood County with resources to help them achieve the goals of increasing EMP enrollment, decreasing the rate of recidivism, and increasing health equity among incarcerated individuals.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

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