MONITORING AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR STATIONARY AND MOBILE PERSONS

A monitoring and communication system for monitoring a supervised person is provided. The system includes a preferably portable personal communication device (PCD), e.g., a portable telephone, and further includes a computer system which stores a contact plan for the supervised person and which is in two-way communication with the PCD. The computer system, using an automated phone call routine, automatically initiates the transmission of electronic voice messages or inquiries to the supervised person's PCD. The computer system records responses transmitted by the supervised person's PCD back to the computer system. The system can contact the supervised person anywhere within a service area. The supervised person responds to one or more questions or requests from the computer system by pressing appropriate keys on the PCD, thereby transmitting responses. The responses are recorded by the computer system. If the computer system does not receive a response from the supervised person's PCD or if the responses do not fall within compliance guidelines, the contact plan is forwarded to personnel for either follow up contact or to or provide other assistance. Responses, or the lack thereof, may also be forward to a third party; for example, in the case of the supervised person being a child, the third party may be a parent of the child.