Electronic Monitoring (EM) is rapidly expanding in the United States. While EM is marketed as an “evidence-based” alternative to incarceration, it’s an alternative form of incarceration and surveillance. While EM proponents refer to these devices as ankle bracelets, we refer to them as shackles since they are not jewelry. They restrict an individual’s liberty, limit their privacy, disrupt family relationships, and may jeopardize their financial security. In addition, the devices may cause physical harm or be traumatizing to those forced to wear them
The first electronic monitors emerged in the mid-60s, as a “soft” alternative by the state for people with relatively minor cases.
People on pretrial release.
Individuals who have completed a prison or jail sentence and have EM as a condition of their parole or probation.
Immigrants under the authority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Youth under the supervision of the juvenile court.
As a form of punishment and dehumanization outside of incarceration in a jail or prison.
To detect alcohol in a person’s perspiration when they have a conviction for DUI.
As an alternative to incarceration for privileged people, like in the cases of Paul Manafort and Paris Hilton, who were permitted to live their life of luxury while they awaited trial.
By bail bond companies to monitor individuals for whom they have paid bail.
EM perpetuates racism. The criminal legal system in the U.S. is deeply rooted in racism, especially anti-Black racism. We currently have limited data on the demographics of electronic monitoring because many jurisdictions do not publicly disclose or even track this kind of data. However, the data that we do have suggests that, like the rest of the U.S. criminal legal system, EM disproportionately affects Black and brown people and communities.
EM widens the net of incarceration. Monitoring is making homes into jail cells and turning Black and brown communities into open-air prisons, continuing the punishment and mass incarceration process that has been going on for decades, in some cases for centuries.
We need strong movements to abolish EM and free people from e-carceration. While we continue to press for the abolition of the prison industrial complex, we fight to eliminate the harms caused by electronic monitors and other forms of punitive technology that we label e-carceration. We need long-term, sufficient political power to eradicate EM to free people from its immediate harm.
MediaJustice offers this toolkit as a method to build that long-term power to abolish EM while also addressing the immediate harms of these devices in people’s lives.