When Tim Malkowski wrote to the Dane County Sheriff's Office in April seeking permission to serve the remainder of his jail sentence on an electronic monitoring bracelet, he signed the letter "penitent inmate."

Last week, he successfully completed the program after three months confined to his apartment on the West Side of Madison.

Malkowski, who was charged with a fourth drunken-driving offense for a December incident in which he tried to flee from police and crashed into a building, would not have been allowed on the program under previous policies. Sheriff Dave Mahoney has changed some of the screening criteria as he has made expansion of the program one of his top priorities.

For Malkowski, that meant an opportunity to avoid his life becoming "an insurmountable fiasco."

"I don't really feel different, just fortunate to be out here, free, as opposed to being in solitude in the jail," Malkowski said. "You just feel so helpless and incapable of doing anything when you're in there."

One of the challenges, he said, was blowing into an alcohol-monitoring device that beeped four to five times a day at random hours. The machine could go eight hours between beeps, or a few minutes, and it had no scruples about beeping in the middle of the night.

"I consider it a small price to pay for having the luxury of being home," Malkowski said.

Malkowski said he missed the alcohol monitoring alerts twice — once while vacuuming and once while in the shower — which prompted deputies to give him a phone call. He said he never received any random visits from deputies.

The most difficult part about being on home arrest was the loneliness. He spent his birthday lamenting how he never envisioned being in this situation at age 30.

The experience allowed Malkowski to find new direction. His girlfriend broke up with him and he wasn't able to find a job while on the bracelet, mostly because he won't be allowed to drive in this country for three years.

So rather than hang around Madison, Malkowski plans to move to Russia to take a welding job with someone he met through his parents.

"It's been a great experience, considering the alternative — I could have been in jail doing nothing," Malkowski said. "It really has helped me better myself."

— Matthew DeFour

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