Pretrial/Companies In 2017 the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that people could not be held in jail because they can’t afford bail. However, part of the criminal legal system’s response was to put people on electronic monitoring with high fees. This had similar effects to imposing cash bail in the first place, a way of …
Learn MorePretrial/Companies/New Technologies Shadowtrack is a cellphone app that has tracking capacities. In the wake of the pandemic many parole and probation deparments have implemented this technology both as a way of getting people out of jail and leaving behind the traditional ankle monitors. According to a report in The Guardian over 11,000 in Virginia were …
Learn MorePretrial/EM and the Law/Companies Although New York City historically has not used pretrial electronic monitoring, there is concern that changes in bail legislation in 2019 would open the door to the spread of EM in New York City and other parts of the state. However, the new legislation contained a clause mandating that any monitoring …
Learn MoreCompanies/Pretrial In 2019 Tennessee Recovery & Monitoring (TRM) turned off the ankle monitors of 20 clients, claiming the individuals owed them fees totaling $31,000. According to EM program regulations, if people fall behind on payments, the company is supposed to have them surrendered to the court, which would then decide what to do with them. …
Learn MorePretrial Ariana, who was on a pretrial electronic monitor in St. Louis, describes how the monitor disrupted her life, and how The Bail Project, a national organization dedicated to ending cash bail, raised money to pay her bond and supported her when she was released. Pretrial Eastern Missouri Alternative Sentencing Program (EMASS) has been contracted …
Learn MorePretrial/Companies In Houston in 2019, local EM company Guarding Public Safety repossessed the ankle monitor of a person charged in a murder case, leaving him unmonitored for two weeks. The company took off the monitor because the man was unable to pay the monitor fees. He ended up back in jail for being “at large.” …
Learn MoreCompanies/Immigration Boulder is the headquarters of BI Incorporated, the largest producer of electronic monitors in the U.S. Since 2004, BI has contracted with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to put GPS monitors on immigrants. From 2010-19, those contracts brought in $670 million for the company. BI is owned by The GEO Group, the world’s …
Learn MoreCompanies/Pretrial Billings, Montana has an open marketplace for pretrial electronic monitoring with exorbitant fees in many instances. Three companies Freidel LLC ($10 a day plus $500 set up fee); Community Solutions ($15 a day) and Alternatives, Inc. ($9 a day) are combining fees from electronic monitoring with other court fees and fines to ensure a …
Learn MoreCompanies/EM and the Law/Pretrial In 2018 four men filed suit in Alameda County against EM company LCA claiming that excessive user fees amounted to extortion. Each of the men had a dire personal situation, making payment of the $25 a day EM fees nearly impossible. One plaintiff, Robert Jackson, was serving 120 days in the …
Learn More