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Some people have tried sticking a piece of lunch meat or a tiffany and co wet napkin on their ankle to try and fool the bracelet.

One person even tried strapping the SCRAM to a cat in the hopes of being able to take a drink undetected. The attempt may have been creative, but it wasn’t effective.

“The machine said, ‘I ain’t buying this. That’s not a human heart,’” said Bob Moeller, a subcontractor for Polygraphs Etc. in Cheyenne.

A SCRAM, or Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, is a sophisticated ankle bracelet some multiple and high-risk DUI offenders are ordered to wear in Laramie County to make sure they do not drink as a condition of their bond or probation.

The monitor is bulky yet lightweight and detects alcohol consumption through sweat around the clock at a rate of about once per hour.

If someone wearing the bracelet has a drink or tries to tamper with the device, it won’t be long before the court learns of the violation.

“One of the big issues that we have, alcohol is always the most difficult thing to catch if people are using it,” said Kurt Zunker, coordinator of the Laramie County DUI and drug courts.

Before SCRAMs, Zunker said, the traditional standby for preventing alcohol use was to pendants do surprise visits on a Friday and Saturday night and catch offenders with a breathalyzer test, a technique he described as ineffective.

The bracelet works in conjunction with a modem that is connected to a land telephone line that is usually placed at the offender’s home or work place. The modem processes information from the bracelet that is then sent over the phone line to a data processing center in Denver.

The DUI Court recently received a $36,000 grant from the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Program to fund the continued use of the SCRAM bracelets.

The court, which began operating in the summer of 2006, contracts with Polygraphs Etc. to help provide the SCRAM services.

Zunker said the bracelet can detect the difference between when a person drinks alcohol or has a small amount of alcohol in their system from a medicine. It keeps track of a person’s pulse and body temperature and registers an alert for fluctuations by a few degrees. An infrared device also detects the distance between the bracelet and the wearer’s skin to help prevent people from strapping it to something else.

“In the long run, it’s a benefit to the community, because we know that people who have been arrested multiple times for DUI are not on the road,” he said.

The length of time participants in the DUI Court have to wear the bracelet varies from person to earrings person. The program typically lasts a year.

Zunker credits SCRAMs for some of the effectiveness of the county’s DUI Court because the sight and constant reminder usually ensures participants immediately stop drinking.

“It gives you that initial buy-in, and then hopefully we can get you involved in drug and alcohol therapy,” Zunker said.

The DUI Court has had 43 people wear a SCRAM bracelet, and Zunker said between eight and 10 court participants are usually wearing the bracelets at any given time. To date, 23 of the 71 people who have participated in DUI Court have graduated.

Zunker said one person in the program and one graduate have been rearrested for DUI.

Moeller said he knows of several people who credit staying sober to the constant reminder key rings strapped to their ankle, including one woman who wanted to keep wearing the SCRAM after seven months because she believed it was all that prevented her from drinking again.

“It’s a reliable system,” he said. “You don’t get false readings, despite what some of the clients might say.”