New Year’s Eve is a dangerous time for many people, especially those who decide to party, drink a little too much, and attempt to drive home.
Another group that enters the danger zone are those individuals who are on home detention. Many of this group has had trouble with drugs and alcohol in the past, and holiday times can be tempting to violate the home monitoring rule that calls for no drinking.
Shawn Mattraw is the Case Manager/Senior Field Officer for the Starke County Community Corrections organization, and he says this is a difficult time for some of the participants.
“New Year’s Eve is traditionally associated with parties and a party atmosphere and these are things that are strictly prohibited while someone is on home detention,” explained Mattraw. “We do a lot of random home inspections throughout the week, weekend, day or night, or whatever the case may be. We really like to step up our efforts around the holiday season, around Christmas and New Year’s, to ensure that our participants are in complete compliance with our rules and regulations.”
Mattraw said the New Year’s Eve visits originated last year and proved successful.
“We implemented last year in our first year of operation and at the time we had 52 participants. We physically inspected 50 of the residents and of the 50, we found nobody in violation of any of our rules and regulations.”
