Understanding The SCRAM Device

SCRAM stands for “Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor”. The SCRAM device is a tamper-resistant bracelet that a DUI offender wears around his/her ankle. The SCRAM bracelet tests the DUI offender’s sweat for alcohol at least once per hour. The SCRAM bracelet wirelessly transmits the results at least once per day via the SCRAM Modem to a regional monitoring center.

The SCRAM device is an example of “transdermal alcohol testing.” Alcohol absorbed in the bloodstream is ultimately eliminated from the body either through metabolism or through excretion (via the breath, urine, sweat and saliva). About 1% of the ingested alcohol escapes the body through “insensible perspiration,” an imperceptible ethanol vapor that passes through the skin.

In other words, a person “sweats out” a small portion of the alcohol that he/she consumes. The SCRAM bracelet / anklet detects this alcohol and reports it automatically to a monitoring center.

Judges in DUI cases may order a defendant to refrain from alcohol, or risk going to jail. The judge may then order the person to wear the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (SCRAM Device) as a means of verifying compliance with this order. If the DUI defendant removes the SCRAM bracelet or consumes alcohol, the regional monitoring center will notify the court.

As a practical matter, most judges in Colorado DUI cases only order the SCRAM program if the offender has prior DUI convictions and is perceived as having a serious alcohol problem.

A judge can require a DUI defendant to wear the SCRAM bracelet/ anklet for any period of time, from 30 days to more than a year. This usually depends on the seriousness of the present DUI offense, the number of prior DUI offenses, and the extent of the person’s alcohol problem.

Generally, the DUI offender ordered to participate in the SCRAM program pays for it himself/herself. But the court system may absorb part of the cost in the case of an indigent DUI defendant.

The SCRAM device is difficult to remove, but it can be done. If the person removes the SCRAM device, or tampers with it, this will alert the Regional Monitoring Center, who will then notify the court.

Yes. The SCRAM program is not a form of house arrest. The person participating in SCRAM still can work, attend school, and go to events. He/she just can’t drink alcohol.

The SCRAM program was developed and is owned by Alcohol Monitoring Systems, or AMS. This is a Colorado company that makes the SCRAM bracelets / anklets and licenses administration of the program to various local private agencies.

A Primer for Criminal Justice Professionals on SCRAM Transdermal Monitoring by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation.