- Cost-effective and recidivism-reducing alternatives to incarceration continue to occupy a priority for criminal justice systems worldwide as societies grapple with balancing concerns ranging from minimizing threats to sustaining positive work and family environments
- During the past four decades, electronic monitoring has emerged as a way to help individuals continue functioning positively within their communities after they have been convicted of criminal behavior
- Israel-based SuperCom Ltd. is positioning itself to be competitive in a field of related government-ordered service contracts, developing a suite of secure identification and digital monitoring products as an end-to-end solution for electronic monitoring programs
- The company is gaining prominence and has announced over $11 million in European government contract orders since April
The use of electronic monitoring (“EM”) to track the whereabouts of domestic violence or other offenders has risen steadily over the last 40-plus years since the state of Florida’s Department of Corrections became the first criminal justice administration to experiment with EM and then adopt it as a way to reduce prison overcrowding and related costs (https://ibn.fm/iqj6C).
The prevalence of domestic violence worldwide and growing efforts to address it have been a significant driver of such attempts to reform incarceration programs while establishing safety measures for the public if an offender is not incarcerated ((https://ibn.fm/FZKNU).
Technological devices used in the dozens of countries where EM is now common have varied over time, including radio-frequency pagers as well as satellite-connected GPS system ankle bracelets and wrist bands (https://ibn.fm/Lh04u).
Electronic monitoring technology innovator SuperCom (NASDAQ: SPCB) is delivering next-level solutions to the EM market through its Puresecurity suite of hardware, connectivity, and software components.
SuperCom serves governments and private organization clients worldwide, with a particular focus on the market in the United States but bolstered by $11 million in new orders from European government clients since April (https://ibn.fm/YcoDe).
The technology also has the capacity to serve a wide range of applications that are not based in criminal justice, such as tracking Alzheimer’s patients prone to wander or vulnerable patients with no in-residence caregiver. However, its primary application at present is monitoring offenders for criminal justice systems, including domestic violence-related cases and substance abuse rehabilitation.
During an interview with the Your Advantage Play podcast earlier this month, SuperCom President and CEO Ordan Trabelsi indicated that the company prefers to focus on one application at a time and expand into new opportunities organically (https://ibn.fm/EHcHN). The offender monitoring market is a niche sector with relatively few developed competitors, presenting SuperCom with greater opportunities to show how its product stands out and to generate revenue.
“If you look at Europe, for example, where we started off with small projects for $100,000, $200,000 in size, now we’re running into projects that are $5 (million), $7 (million) and even $30-plus million in size,” Trabelsi said. “And that just shows how sometimes the market dynamics and the industry have to match your offering, so you can make a disruptive change in the industry and also for your company.”
Unfortunately, bulky ankle monitors continue to be commonly prescribed by legislation and courts in response to domestic violence cases in which threat assessments are narrowly focused (https://ibn.fm/yz7rG), and the challenges of administering such programs require ongoing attention and flexibility in designing EM plans (https://ibn.fm/Y1iGu). However, SuperCom’s wearable EM device has the advantage of being virtually unnoticeable underneath clothing, reducing unnecessary stigmatization of monitored subjects at work and in other public environments.
The company’s Puresecurity suite’s IoT product line uses artificial intelligence capability to amplify user decision-making ability through data analysis and predictive modeling. And the base technology has the advantage of long battery life in lightweight packaging, which allows it to be durable and versatile.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SuperCom.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to SPCB are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/SPCB