Executives of tech startup Talitrix say their products address a crisis of overcrowded jails, including Fulton County’s, as more people call for alternatives to jailing offenders in the first place.
Bulky, easily visible ankle monitors have been used for decades — devices in which Talitrix also has a stake. But the company started by marketing an “outside the walls,” or OTW, monitor that resembles a smartwatch.
“It removes the stigma, the scarlet letter,” said Micah Gravley, Talitrix vice president of business development.
Now Talitrix offers an “inside the walls,” or ITW, wristband for use in jails. Its first large-scale use is in Fulton County, where implementation remains incomplete.
The wristbands are made in Taiwan by Thundercomm, with some assembly in Atlanta, said Justin Hawkins, Talitrix CEO and board member. San Diego-based Thundercomm is a joint venture between Chinese firm Thunder Software Technology Co. Ltd. and the investment arm of Qualcomm, which is also headquartered in San Diego.
The OTW system is used in 107 jurisdictions in seven states, including 48 counties in Georgia. About 3,250 OTW wristbands are in use on pretrial defendants, those on probation, and those in drug court, Hawkins said. In Fulton County, though, those people only wear ankle monitors through a Talitrix subsidiary.
“We are the largest monitoring company in Georgia and the Southeast based on local jurisdictions,” Hawkins said.
While ankle monitors have to be charged at a wall outlet, Talitrix wristbands have a small charging block that can be slipped on while the person remains mobile, Gravley said.
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The OTW wristband gives wearers a 0-100 compliance score based on criteria set by each jurisdiction, Hawkins said. People who routinely meet all conditions get an occasional check-in, but warnings go regularly to those with a pattern of violations, said Bryce Jones, product owner of OTW software and mobile apps.
The company offers a free app for crime victims, Gravley said. When someone on a protective or restraining order gets within range of their victim, both the wearer and the victim get an alert.
The ITW wristbands require substantial infrastructure to be installed in the jail. A computer dashboard can show inmate heart rates, whether a wristband is being tampered with or is broken, and its battery level, said Chris Holliday, senior software engineer.
Talitrix doesn’t keep any information that’s not standard for monitoring, Hawkins said. Only the company and the legal jurisdiction have access, and Talitrix follows strict cybersecurity protocols, he said.
Hawkins acknowledged some privacy concerns with ITW monitoring. He said the company does not routinely keep heart monitoring data, but for inmates with known heart conditions may do so for 90 days.
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Other data is stored for seven years, but it’s owned by the relevant jurisdiction and is never sold, though Talitrix may use it for predictive analytics, Hawkins said.
“We ask to use the predictive analytics when the jurisdiction allows us to,” he said.
In March, Talitrix bought A&A All County Monitoring Services Inc. of Lawrenceville, which already had a one-year contract with Fulton County for ankle monitors.
The county paid A&A $1.5 million but that was spent by mid-year. On Nov. 15 commissioners agreed to pay another $1.6 million so long as the number of people on monitoring doesn’t rise above the current 1,518.
In a letter the day prior to commissioners’ vote, Hawkins said the ankle monitor program grew 40%. Talitrix hired 10 people to handle it and retained A&A’s former owner Charles Shaw, Hawkins said.
It costs taxpayers $105 a day to keep an inmate in jail, not counting medical costs, while electronic monitoring costs $7 a day, Gravley said.
In his Nov. 14 letter, Hawkins said use of electronic monitoring will save the county about $41.8 million in 2023 over the cost of jail.
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