A check-in and tethering system for monitoring persons such as released in court-ordered supervised programs and a method for operating such a system is disclosed. The system includes a tethered mobile device that provides a check-in procedure that requires a response from a user of the tethered mobile device in the form of at least one of a device identifier from a monitored tethered device attached to the user, a biometric response, or a performed action by the user. The tethered mobile device determines whether the response is valid and transmits a notification to a monitoring center in response to the determination.