PARIS – Oxford County Jail Administrator Ernie Martin sees ankle bracelets as one way to relieve overcrowding.

He has contracted with Behavioral Intervention of Boulder, Colo., to come to the jail early next month to provide training on the electronic monitoring program, which will allow some inmates to serve the latter parts of their sentences at home.

The jail has done home monitoring without electronics in the past, but this will be the first time the leg bracelets will be used, Martin said. The bracelets emit an electronic signal if movement occurs beyond a designated range from the offender’s home.

“If we have to board people out, it can cost $100 a day,” said Martin. The 27-bed jail frequently houses 30 to 40 inmates, sometimes as many as 50 or more in the spring, he said.

Policies are still being developed for the program, but Martin said that in general only minimum-security inmates would be eligible for the program. “Most likely we’ll stick to misdemeanor cases,” he said.

People with a medical condition or other special needs may also qualify for the program, he said. “I don’t think you’ll see it happen unless it’s a very special situation or we are acutely overcrowded.”

Martin said inmate assigned to house arrest will be allowed outside the permitted range only for work, counseling or medical appointments.

Anytime the inmate goes out of the range of the bracelet’s receiver, a signal is automatically sent to a host computer, and the jail is notified immediately, Martin said. Behavioral Intervention also will send the jail daily reports of the inmate’s activity.

Funding for the program will come from profits from coin telephones used by inmates.