As I understand this article in the Waco Tribune, right now the state has a law that says if you want to allow people to serve time outside a jail and have them electronically monitored, the monitoring must be administered by a community supervision and corrections department. What the McLennan County sheriff's department wants to do is be in charge of that program;since that would require a change to the law, they're meeting with SD-22 Kip Averitt next week. And, instead of paying $40 per day per inmate, the charge would be on the person wearing the electronic monitoring apparatus.

Offenders who qualify for electronic monitoring would include low-risk, work-release or weekend inmates. Commissioner Ray Meadows said having an ankle bracelet program gives judges more sentencing options and would open up space in the county jail used by day work-release inmates.

The proposed legislation mandates that participants in the program would pay the daily cost of the ankle bracelet. The legislation also states that a county will subsidize or pay in full the cost of the program for indigent offenders. That provision ensures that the program is equally available to all eligible participants.