Summary
Published August 2023
Community supervision agencies face increasing challenges in both monitoring and supporting individuals on community supervision. Resource limitations, high-volume caseloads, and staff capacity present persistent challenges to supervision. In addition, COVID-19 created new complexities like social distancing. At the same time, there is increasing interest in reducing the burdens on monitored individuals and shifting community supervision to a more proactive and supportive approach. These factors are driving interest in using novel technologies to enhance community supervision. This brief begins with relevant context and trends within community supervision, followed by technology insights for three supervision technologies—location tracking systems (LTS), alcohol and drug monitoring solutions, and smartphone applications. This is the first document in a four-part series on technologies to support the monitoring and supervision of individuals on pretrial release, probation, and parole (i.e., community supervision).
