Tracking: The Prison Outside Prison

Electronic Monitoring is a very big business. America is closing in on half a million people on ankle bracelets that can not merely give their precise location, but biometrics like heartbeats and even their tone of voice. At the slightest suspicion, the police can show up, without warrants, and haul them in again. This is the world of James Kilgore, who has written Understanding E-Carceration from his own experience and his work to stop it.

As America moves through mass criminalization, it has branched out beyond the walls of prisons, which are not merely bursting at the seams, but horrendously understaffed and underequipped as well. And since they represent far more than their share of prisoners, Blacks and immigrants also represent far more than their share of electronic monitoring (EM) clients.

While most will think EM is a privilege over being in prison, the truth is far different. Police add so many restrictions to movement that life becomes all but impossible on EM. The slightest infraction, from not having the bracelet charged, to stepping out to say, take out the trash, could have a patrol car screaming to a stop at the house, and the wearer being taken in and sent back to prison, no questions asked. Getting to a job interview takes days to negotiate with the minders, and employers are not thrilled to be told the candidate will try to get back to…