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Orange Co. home confinement fix draft report released

ORLANDO, Fla. — 9 Investigates helped expose Orange County's broken home confinement program and now the 100-page report suggesting how to fix it has been released.

9 Investigates began looking into the home confinement program last fall after a deadly home invasion in Ocoee.  Since then, the top two jail officials have stepped down, and the program was shut down.

Records show the suspect in 19-year-old Alex Zaldivar's murder broke curfew rules 109 times without catching any attention from corrections officials. But the new report offers suggestions on how to bring the program back online.

“Some fairly dangerous people were being put on home confinement,” said county commissioner Fred Brummer.

The study highlights several problems and offers solutions. Among them is using the latest technology from the private sector but having the county do the monitoring.

Another suggestion is to have more strict criteria for who is allowed on home confinement and make sure judges and the county are on the same page when it comes to deciding who is allowed out.

Brummer said he like the ideas in the report but believes plan needs to be put in place to make those running and monitoring the program accountable, otherwise he doesn't think anything will change.

“Two years from now, the next Alex Zaldivar is going to be at risk,” said Brummer.

Anyone involved in the process is allowed to make suggestions before the final report is presented to county commissioners next month.