Records: ABK Tracking, an Evansville company aiming to keep people out of jail, sent 148 there in 2021

More:ABK Tracking and the Vanderburgh County courts: 5 things to know

Dispatch records reviewed by the Courier & Press show Evansville Police Department officers were called to ABK Tracking about specific individuals at least 172 times in 2021. Those calls landed people in jail most of the time, and they often stayed in Vanderburgh County's crowded jail several days waiting for a court appearance. 

Vanderburgh County's courts order people to use ABK for electronic monitoring and drug testing, paid for by participant, while on bond before trial or while on probation.

The incarcerations bump against ABK's stated goal. On its website, it touts its services as a solution to jail overcrowding, and that its monitoring systems "... offer an effective alternative to incarceration."

More:Private company ABK profits from no-bid deal with Vanderburgh County judge

Instead, many of its customers often end up back in jail for days or weeks at a time because of failed drug tests or fees they can't afford. 

David Carney can tell you that putting a drug addict like himself behind bars isn't going to help him recover.

"It's all about treatment. It's not about incarceration. You're not going to get a meth addict better by sending them in here," he said.

Carney, 56, spoke to the Courier & Press from the Vanderburgh County jail, where he is waiting for a transfer to the Indiana Department of Correction.

He's there because ABK Tracking asked a judge to revoke his electronic home detention sentence. Carney was sent to jail on Dec. 29 after failing a second drug screen at ABK as part of his home detention sentence on charges of dealing and possessing methamphetamine.

How to fix Vanderburgh jail overcrowding? More courts, programs eyed as possible solutions

Carney was one of 11 people jailed at least in part for financial reasons after ABK employees called police on them last year, according to a Courier & Press analysis of police and court records.

Although he had not failed a drug test for more than 16 months until November 2021, Vanderburgh Circuit Court Magistrate Ryan Reed ordered him to increase his drug tests to three times a week. He also was told to seek substance abuse counseling.

Drug testing, monitoring top $1k a month

Carney said he was already struggling with the costs, and the added drug testing made it worse. 

He had been paying ABK Tracking weekly to be monitored on home detention with a GPS bracelet, as well as for drug testing. With the additional tests, his payments rose to $252 a week – more than $1,000 a month.

Not only could he not keep up with payments, but with his mind clouded by relapse, Carney did not follow through with counseling.

"That's on me. There is a lot of would-haves and should-haves in there, along with relapsing and stuff," he said. "Once you relapse, that stuff is pretty bad." 

By the time of his arrest on Dec. 29, Carney owed ABK Tracking $735. The company's high fees are an issue for other participants. An ongoing Courier & Press investigation found one Vanderburgh County defendant paid ABK Tracking more than $10,000 for electronic monitoring and drug testing while he was out of jail on bail. Although the defendant has since pleaded guilty, at the time he had not been convicted of anything and his case had been pending for nearly two years.

Then there are those who ended up in jail. 

The Courier & Press cross-referenced all dispatch calls to ABK with court records. According to the records, the Vanderburgh County probation department filed at least 64 petitions to revoke against individuals as a result of the calls. Owing various probation, court or ABK Tracking fees was cited among the reasons for revoking bonds or probation in 11 of the cases.

In most, the participants were initially arrested at ABK for failing drug tests, but probation officers sometimes cited the back fees in the petitions to revoke. 

Former ABK employee Courtney Marvel said supervisors were aware participants often had trouble with the costs. She said when individuals showed up for their drug or alcohol tests but didn't have cash for the fee, they were not given the test. And it was not uncommon for police to be called. 

More:Indiana law limits court fee to supervise people on bail, but not ABK Tracking's charges

When that happened, Marvel said, employees were instructed not to tell the person that authorities were on the way. Frequent notations on dispatch records reflect that, with notes such as "not aware calling." In one case, a dispatcher noted a participant was there with two small children.

Carney's weekly payments included $35 per drug test, plus an additional $147 for electronic monitoring. While ABK normally charges $112 a week for monitoring, Carney said he had to pay an extra $35 because he didn't have a bank account for automatic deductions and had to pay cash.

Before he failed his second drug test, on Dec. 29, Carney said an ABK employee had already called and threatened that his sentence would be revoked if he didn’t catch up with payments.

“On Dec. 15, I think it was, she called and told me I was behind and said I had until Jan. 5 to make payment or she would PTR (file a petition to revoke) me,” he said.

ABK actually filed a petition to revoke on the day she called, court records show. 

The irony, Carney said, is that he had already told ABK that he intended to pay the fees in three installments over several days.

“She called me up the day before (his December arrest) wanting to know how I was going to make the payments and I told her,” he said. “I had the money. And I’ve ended up using that for a lawyer.”

'You need to get a better job'

On Jan. 19, Vanderburgh Circuit Court Judge David Kiely ordered that Carney serve the remaining two years of his five-year sentence at the Indiana Department of Correction.

Kiely oversees Vanderburgh’s adult probation office and selected ABK to provide all testing and monitoring ordered through the probation office. As the Courier & Press first reported in October, ABK Tracking owner Danny Koester and Kiely are friends. 

Neither of them responded to a Courier & Press request for comment on the arrests.

ABK Tracking filed a report with the court on Dec. 30 citing Carney's failed drug test, but noted that he still had until Jan. 3 to pay for additional lab testing of his sample. Participants have the option to contest positive drug screens by paying a $40 lab fee for the additional testing.

But the report said something else, too: "David also has a past due balance with ABK Tracking in the amount of $735. ABK Tracking ask that his sentence be revoked." 

A petition to revoke Carney's sentence was filed on the same day by the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office, using wording identical to ABK Tracking's report.

In revoking Carney's home detention and sentencing him to prison, court records don't show if Kiely considered or mentioned the fees he owed ABK. Kiely cited Carney's failure to follow through with substance abuse counseling, his admission to using meth and a prior criminal charge from Kentucky.

While speaking to the Courier & Press, Carney acknowledged his addiction struggles.

He said he battled his meth habit while on bond after his February 2020 arrest for felony charges of dealing and possessing meth.

Court records show that after he pleaded guilty and was sentenced in August 2020, Carney did not violate his probation until he relapsed in November 2021 and failed a test.

Carney said he began falling behind on payments after he left a manufacturing job at Berry Global that was too physically demanding. He went back to a less stressful but lower-paying job as kitchen manager at a West Side pizza place.

He said he previously fell behind on payments a few times, but he always paid up eventually.

"I only went to work at Berry to cover ABK. When I was at the pizza place and I got behind a couple times at ABK, (an employee at ABK) said, 'You need to get a better job,'" Carney said.

When he lost his bank account because of bad credit, Carney said ABK began charging him the extra $35 to pay his weekly electronic monitoring fee in cash.out of money they just spit you out," Carney said.