Outreach Smartphone Monitoring Announced as a Top 25 Program in This Year's Innovations in American Government Awards

Outreach Smartphone Monitoring Named Top 25 in Harvard's 2017 Innovations in American Government Awards Competition

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May 03, 2017, 19:59 ET

MONTROSE, Colo., May 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Outreach Smartphone Monitoring was announced as a Top 25 program in this year's Innovations in American Government Awards competition by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. As a Top 25 program, Outreach is representing the top 2% of all initial applications for the Innovations Award.

The team at Outreach believes that the smartphone is the perfect vehicle to distribute resources to individuals and collect the data needed to document what really reduces recidivism. Since 2014, Outreach has been working with community supervision agencies to design an application that would replace the use of an ankle bracelet. This would be accomplished by incorporating a Bluetooth biometric wristband, remote blood alcohol testing using a fuel cell Bluetooth breathalyzer, providing rehabilitative resources and traditional electronic monitoring features. The OSM smartphone and web application are used in over 25 states and customer groups, including Drug Courts, Pretrial Services, Probation, Reentry, Juvenile Supervision, Treatment Facilities and DUI law firms.

Stephen Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in Government program at the Ash Center, called these programs "the vanguard of creative, solution-oriented governing, demonstrating that the drive to make government work better and do more comes from all levels and jurisdictions of every size. These programs are focused on an impressive range of areas and some of the country's most pressing social concerns, including the opioid epidemic, government efficiency and efficacy, environmental conservation, homelessness, and the school and workforce readiness of our citizens."

The Innovations in American Government Awards was created by the Ford Foundation in 1985 in response to widespread pessimism and distrust in government's effectiveness. Since its inception, over 500 government innovations across all jurisdiction levels have been recognized and have collectively received more than $22 million in grants to support dissemination efforts. Such models of good governance also inform research and academic study around key policy areas both at Harvard Kennedy School and academic institutions worldwide. Past winners have served as the basis of case studies taught in more than 450 Harvard courses and over 2,250 courses worldwide.

For more information, contact:

Daniel Harsha
Associate Director for Communications, Ash Center
617-495-4347

Outreach Smartphone Monitoring

http://osmnow.com
Mike Kingery – CEO
970-240-8878
[email protected]

ABA Journal

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SOURCE Outreach Smartphone Monitoring