By Michelle LaBorde 

BI, Inc.’s vision statement includes these words: "Ours is not a company. It’s a cause." The stark building that houses BI at 6400 Lookout Road in Gunbarrel gives no clue that such conviction works within its walls. 

BI, Inc. is the leading provider of technology and support to criminal justice and community corrections systems in the United States and throughout the world. BI pioneered the use of home incarceration devices, to confine convicted criminals to their home for punishment. 

The offender is fitted with a device, worn around the ankle, that allows corrections officers to electronically "watch" to ensure the offender complies with the terms of his or her house arrest. Home detention makes limited jail space available for more serious criminals and saves taxpayers the cost of housing less risky offenders.

BI’s "flagship" product, the BI Home Escort, uses a radio frequency to keep in touch via the offender’s phone line, and to constantly inform a BI monitoring center of their whereabouts. The ankle bracelet transmits a signal to a receiver attached to the participant’s phone. The equipment is programmed to know when and for how long subjects go to and from work or school and any other information specific to their sentences. Any deviation causes the system to send an alarm to the monitoring center and informs the corrections official assigned to the case.

From the Home Escort, BI’s product line has expanded to: 

•Remote in-home alcohol testing device, 

•Automated caseload management for probation departments, •Centralized software used to manage jails and prisons, •Providing tracking and jail operations information. 

Twenty four hour electronic monitoring, court fee and victim restitution collections, and community corrections facilities and treatment programs are among the many services provided by BI.

There are 85 different BI offices scattered worldwide, with corporate headquarters here in Gunbarrel. Two hundred and seventy five people work at BI’s Gunbarrel site, many of whom man the systems in BI’s GuardCenter, monitoring offenders around the clock. An identical GuardCenter in Anderson, Ind. also performs electronic supervision and training for BI clients. 

BI was incorporated in 1978, when an engineering consulting firm was conducting research and development of radio frequency identification products. In 1983, BI began focusing on applications for these identification devices in the corrections industry. According to corporate information found on its web site, BI is "the only manufacturer of Electronic Home Arrest Monitoring (EHAM) that in the last five years has been profitable..." This profitability has enabled BI to devote eight percent of its annual revenue to ongoing research and development.

BI holds 70 percent of the US EHAM market and 95 percent of the international market. International clients include Canada, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, and Singapore, which in 1992 was the company’s first large international account. 

Since 1993, BI has been and remains the sole contractor for the Federal Home Confinement Program, monitoring more than 4,000 offenders. Today, according to BI’s company President and CEO Dave Hunter, BI’s home incarceration devices are in use in Boulder County and in 2000 other jurisdictions, at federal, state and local levels of government.

Because of the nature of BI’s business, they take their work and the quality of their products and services very seriously. "We work in a business that we call dead serious." says Hunter. 

With lives at stake, quality is the company’s foremost concern. BI is ISO 9001 certified, but wants to take its commitment to quality assurance even further by striving to obtain the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Drive by the BI building and you’ll notice the bright blue banner declaring that BI is "Soaring Toward Baldrige." 

According to Hunter the Baldrige is "to American corporations what the Oscar is to movie production." Historically, only 35 companies have achieved Baldrige status out of "tens of thousands" that have applied. The award process is rigorous and comprehensive, with several stages of review and recommendation for change, before even being considered. 

The process itself asks, "What can we do to create a culture where quality is improved through a state of mind that is forever creating a new and better way to do things," Hunter explained. Seeking the Baldrige is "totally pervasive, ubiquitous, it’s everywhere in this corporation."

The future holds many possibilities for BI products. Transmitters are already becoming smaller and less obtrusive and there is potential for applications beyond criminal corrections. Perhaps one day it will be possible for families to keep loved ones afflicted with Alz-heimer’s disease at home rather than in an expensive facility. Hunter predicts being able to monitor those with Alzheimer’s, autism or those who are at risk for serious medical problems, by using panic buttons with high-tech tracers. The potential for these products are exponential, but for now BI remains focused on criminal justice.

BI is "dead serious" about their "cause." Hunter says, "If we do [this] well, BI can help reduce recidivism, [and] reduce violence in society. Potential victims...will never become victims, and offenders not only don’t re-offend, [they] become productive members of society".

BI, Inc. can be found on the web at <www.bi.com>.