Franklin County judges are asking county commissioners to help save a smartphone supervision program they say has kept people out of jail and off warrant lists for years, after the state pulled its funding. Judge Matthew Houston told commissioners that eliminating RePath could cost Franklin County hundreds of thousands of dollars in housing additional inmates, according to The Missourian.
RePath is a smartphone-based supervision platform built by eHawk, Inc. for probation, parole, pretrial and specialty court agencies, offering check-ins, reminders, location context, two-way communication and visit notes written for officers through participants' own phones. Franklin County adopted RePath for every defendant with a warrant in late 2022, Judge Houston said, and the tool has since become central to how the county tracks people awaiting court dates without locking them up. Joseph Purschke, who oversees Franklin County's drug court, discussed RePath's role in the county.
Houston discussed RePath's role in helping people appear in court. Every warrant issued creates an officer contact, Houston said, and fewer warrants means improved officer safety. Sheriff Steve Pelton has said additional time and money would be spent dealing with people who fail to appear for hearings if the program disappears.
The Cost of Losing a Jail Alternative
Houston said the county could face additional jail housing costs without RePath in place. Purschke said the program prevents jail time in Franklin County, and losing it would shift costs onto the county's own budget rather than the state's. Purschke also said the state budget shortfall is being used as an excuse to remove RePath, framing the cut as a choice rather than a necessity.
Statewide, RePath's own materials describe a much larger footprint. According to a post from repath.substack.com, Missouri budgeted $6 million for a two-year pilot that made the program available to pretrial programs across the state, and courts ordered RePath mobile supervision for more than 16,000 people across 37 of Missouri's 46 judicial circuits and 92 counties. The same post reports that failures to appear and use of expensive ankle monitors fell by more than 50% after the rollout, and says Missouri had renewed the program while working to make it permanent.
One Circuit's Numbers, and a Statewide Pullback
The substack post also points to Missouri's 40th Circuit, where failures to appear and warrants reportedly dropped by more than 50% after a year on RePath, with rearrests falling to 4%, and the circuit reporting savings of more than $1 million. Those figures come from RePath's own account of its results rather than an independent audit. Purschke said judges are seeking to restore state funding for RePath.
Purschke pointed to broader strain on the state's judicial system in explaining the funding squeeze, saying Missouri restricted new positions, including a circuit judge seat for Franklin County. He said treatment, not just supervision, is needed to address addiction underlying many of the cases RePath touches.
County Commission Weighs In
The judges' request now puts pressure on commissioners to decide whether local dollars should cover a gap left by the state's proposed budget cut to RePath.
Elsewhere, interest in similar smartphone supervision tools appears to be growing rather than shrinking. In Kansas, citizenportal.ai reported that Riley County will implement the Kansas Department of Corrections' RePath app as a standard condition of supervision for juveniles on intensive probation, a sign the underlying technology is expanding its footprint even as Franklin County fights to keep its own funding intact.
