Vanderburgh County corrections set to drop ABK as electronic home detention provider

EVANSVILLE – ABK Tracking will no longer be Vanderburgh County Community Corrections' provider for electronic home detention.

The Community Corrections Advisory Board, a group comprised of law enforcement, judges and community organization leaders, voted unanimously with one abstention Thursday to replace ABK with Corrisoft, a Lexington-based "correctional software" company.

Those who voted yes included Sheriff Noah Robinson, Prosecutor Diana Moers and judges Wayne Trockman and Brett Niemeier.

However, ABK can still get some business from the county through offenders who aren't sentenced to community corrections.

Corrisoft will use "customized smartphones" and other devices to track those put on home detention. Like ABK, they use ankle monitors, as well.

Their fees are also much lower. ABK charges community corrections $13 a day for ankle monitoring compared to $5 a day for Corrisoft. The move would save the county around $117,000 a year, said James Akin, director of Vanderburgh County Community Corrections.

The fees can be even higher for Vanderburgh County residents who go through probation outside the community corrections program. ABK's high costs have made it the subject of both a Courier & Press investigation and a federal lawsuit that accuses the company of profiting off low-income residents.

The board said the decision could take effect as early as next week, but it still has to go to the Vanderburgh County Commissioners for contract approval.

In November, the board previously agreed to split an electronic home detention contract between ABK and Corrisoft, with the former handling violent offenders and the latter taking on the rest of the cases. Previously, ABK held a no-bid, no-contract deal with the county for its services.

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However, with new members appointed, the board voted to rescind the two-party contract and give all electronic home detention business in community corrections to Corrisoft. Trockman made both motions.

ABK owner Danny Koester unsuccessfully asked the board to table the decision until a later meeting. He argued the move would put the community in danger.

"If I am wrong, show me. If I am right, people are gonna get hurt," he said. "It could be anyone in this room that could get hurt.”

Akin disputed that, countering that the worst offenders, such as murder, rape and battery suspects, aren't eligible for electronic home detention anyway. Any concern about electronic home detention violations leading to violence would usually revolve around domestic violence cases, he said.

He also said Corrisoft's technology would allow community corrections and law enforcement to track, in real time, anyone who violated their electronic home detention – something they previously had to ask ABK to do for them.

The board didn't discuss ABK's role in alcohol and drug monitoring in Vanderburgh Circuit Court. Those who go through circuit could still technically get electronic home detention through ABK if they aren't sentenced to community corrections.

ABK has been the subject of a Courier & Press investigation into how an arrangement between the company and Circuit Court Judge David Kiely − who wasn't present at Thursday's meeting − led to probation violations and jail time for those unable to pay the high cost of ABK's fees.

ABK is also embroiled in a federal class-action lawsuit filed last year that accuses ABK Tracking, Vanderburgh County and Kiely of conspiring to "extort" money from poor residents. Attorneys in the lawsuit have filed a motion in federal court asking a judge to stop ABK's collection of fees until the suit is resolved.

One of the plaintiffs in that suit, Williams Huggins, told the Courier & Press ABK's fees cost him about $600 a month – only $75 less than his rent.

Some participants who couldn't pay for frequent drug tests and set-up fees were jailed for supposedly violating their probation. Equal Justice Under the Law, the nonprofit spearheading the suit, compared that to a "modern-day debtor's prison."

The motion is set for a hearing on Jan. 18. Courier & Press reporting on ABK is repeatedly cited in the suit.

Akin said the decision to move on from ABK came largely from financial reasons. He claimed board members didn't discuss the looming lawsuit. However, he said, it "didn't help."

What is Corrisoft?

Three Corrisoft representatives, including CEO Alan Eargle, attended Thursday's meeting.

According to Eargle, Corrisoft first began building its platform around 2007. It filed to incorporate as a business with the Kentucky Secretary of State's office in 2009 and began tracking in 2011. Their agents provide monitoring 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year in multiple states and countries.

They use a system of products they call "AIR," or "alternative to incarceration via rehabilitation." It includes a mobile app for participants, as well as apps certain approved law enforcement officers can use to track participants.

Eargle said the company would have to consult with its attorneys about how much personal information they can share, and with whom.

There's also a desktop dashboard community corrections can use to track participants who violate their electronic home detention. Akin said he's already had "multiple discussions" with Corrisoft about what protocols the company and county will set up.

A key to changing providers was making sure community corrections complied with Indiana's new law governing probationary services.

It sets guidelines as to how quickly a service has to alert law enforcement if a participant violates their electronic home detention, and would require Corrisoft and others to give the courts they serve quarterly rundowns on how much they collect in fees from the people sentenced to probation.

Akin believes the switch will put community corrections in full adherence to the law.

"I wouldn’t have set this up through these guys if I didn’t believe that," he said.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Vanderburgh Co. to replace ABK Tracking as provider of home detention