Shackled: The Realities of Home Imprisonment
Typically release from prison is a good thing. No one wants to be holed up in a small, dirty cell with a stranger, away from family and friends. Some people, particularly innocent people, are so desperate to get out of a cell that they’ll plead guilty to charges they’re innocent of, because probation is cheaper than electronic monitoring. For others who are in no better financial predicament but who have many responsibilities or dependents who rely on them, ankle monitoring is the only alternative to incarceration.
This baseball sized device strapped to the parolee’s ankle doesn’t exactly provide the freedom that the once-detained person hoped for. Indeed, living with an ankle monitor is its own brand of imprisonment.
Many parolees wearing ankle monitors fear leaving their homes. While some parolees opt to wear flared pants to hide the monitor, others choose to remain indoors. One parolee-turned-student said, “I cannot visit a beach without enduring public humiliation.” [1] This humiliation is the belief that everyone is watching, judging, and assuming the parolee is a dangerous criminal. In actuality, most parolees are low to medium risk offenders.[2]
Ankle monitors put parolees are at risk of debt and unemployment. The set-up fee for ankle monitors is between $175 and $200. [3] The daily fee ranges from $5 to $40. [4] For indigent parolees, these fees are exorbitant. Some parolees must wear ankle monitors for years. Others are forced to wear ankle monitors for a lifetime. Years of ankle monitoring use, puts parolees deeper and deeper in debt, as they pay for every day’s use.
In South Carolina, most parolees wearing ankle monitors can’t pay the entirety of fees, so that less than 1% of fees attached to ankle monitors is actually gained by the state. [5] This means South Carolina taxpayers pick up a 3.5 million tab from the uncollected fees. [6] In Wisconsin, less than half of ankle monitor fees were collected in 2015 and only around 30% was collected in 2012-2014. [7] Ankle monitors create a cycle of poverty and cost taxpayers money.
Let’s break down how the cycle of poverty unfolds:
Step 1: People lose their jobs after incarceration.
Step 2: Ankle monitors are strapped onto parolees as an alternative to incarceration.
Step 3: Parolees rack up daily ankle monitor fees.
Step 4: Employers don’t hire people wearing ankle monitors.
Step 5: Parolees find employment but continue to accrue financial debt from the ankle monitor.
It’s ironic that wearing an ankle monitor prevents parolees from getting work, because “if they would have been deemed an appropriate candidate for (work release), [they are put on ankle monitors].” [8]
Indeed, the U.S Department of Corrections for Tennessee reported that 22% of the surveyed parolees wearing ankle monitors lost their job as a direct result of wearing the monitor. [9] Some people may then ask, “Why don’t parolees just stay in jail or prison if they can’t afford wearing an ankle monitor?” Well, there are many reasons why people can’t stay incarcerated.
Some parolees are the sole providers for their family. Some parolees are in imminent danger when they’re incarcerated or they fear being celled with a violent offender. All parolees miss their family and friends. Most of all, it is human nature to want to be free. Liberty is, after all, a fundamental right, but for parolees wearing ankle monitors liberty comes with a hefty cost—one that the majority cannot afford.
Not surprisingly, the spouses of parolees wearing ankle monitors suffer, too.
According to The Associated Press, a 2011 report showed that 43% of the surveyed 5000 parolees said that they believed ankle monitors had negative effects on their spouses due to the inconvenience the monitor caused.
Aside from the exorbitant cost of ankle monitors and their deleterious effects on employment, wearing an ankle monitor negatively impacts the day-to-day life of parolees.
An ankle monitor must be charged twice a day. For the parolees working or socializing, keeping the ankle monitor charged is very inconvenient. Parolees must sit by an outlet and charge the monitor for two hours. Needless to say, not every worksite can accommodate a parolee in this sense and this might be pretty awkward for parolees who are charging their monitor while at a local coffee shop.
Imagine going into Starbucks or Panera with 2% left on your ankle monitor before it goes off and sends an alert, but every outlet is taken. What do you do?
You scour the room for the friendliest (and perhaps least judgmental) looking person, tap that person on the shoulder and nervously say, “Excuse me. May I charge my ankle monitor on this outlet? I see that you’re busy, but my monitor is about to die and if that happens then an alert is sent out and I’ll get re-arrested. Oh, no, no, don’t worry. I promise I’m not an ax murderer!”
Definitely not the best predicament to be in, but it’s a predicament all too common to parolees wearing ankle monitors. Other than being totally inconvenient (at least they’re water-proof so that you can shower with them on), they’ve been known to cause lower back problems, foot numbness, scarring, and bleeding. [10] As it charges, it heats up, causing skin irritation for the parolee. Although ankle monitors claim to be designed for comfort, that is hardly the reality. Ankle monitors cause as much physical harm as they cause psychological harm. For parolees who must wear ankle monitors for years, the physical side effects may be irreparable.
Not surprisingly, the spouses of parolees wearing ankle monitors suffer, too. According to The Associated Press, a 2011 report showed that 43% of the surveyed 5000 parolees said that they believed ankle monitors had negative effects on their spouses due to the inconvenience the monitor caused. [11]
“I have to plan my whole life around his schedule. It affects whatever support system the person has.”
Others aren’t allowed to participate in birthday celebrations or other family get-togethers, because it may mean that the parolee isn’t home by curfew. Imagine what a feeling it is to know that your sickly grandmother has reached her 90th birthday and you can’t attend. Imagine feeling too ashamed to attend your own daughter’s 8th birthday because you don’t want the other children to see your monitor. Imagine not being allowed to go on a vacation to celebrate your 10th wedding anniversary because of your monitor. As anyone can see, ankle monitors are not only shackles with an exorbitant cost for the parolee, they have a collateral side effect on the entire family.
Ironically enough, even if a parolee is home by curfew, the ankle monitor may report otherwise. On YouTube there’s a video of then-News21-reporter Jude Joffe-Block voluntarily subjecting herself to an ankle monitoring to get a sense of what living under 24 hour surveillance feels like. The timestamp at 2:56 records the ankle monitor giving off a false alert while Joffe-Block is in bed. [13] Other sources also state that false alerts and similar malfunctions aren’t uncommon. [14] Parolees pay a lot of money to have ankle monitoring as an alternative to incarceration, thinking that ankle monitors will give them more freedom. Yet, there is nothing free about an ankle monitor.
They stigmatize. They isolate. They come with an exorbitant price tag.
In short, the practice of using ankle monitors cause more trouble than they’re worth (especially when non-electronic supervision is shown to have better results) and they can’t even be guaranteed to function properly all of the time.
[1] The Marshall Project. Living With an Ankle Bracelet: Freedom, with conditions. 07/16/2015
[2] La Crosse Tribune. GPS Ankle Bracelet Monitoring of Low-Risk Offenders Costs More Than Anticipated.
[3] Kilgore, James. Electronic Monitoring Is Not The Answer: Critical reflections of a flawed alternative. 10/2015
[4] Id.
[5] Ellis, Mike. Jailed by GPS: What it’s like for convicts who wear ankle bracelets. 10/17/2015
[6] Id.
[7] La Crosse Tribune. GPS Ankle Bracelet Monitoring of Low-Risk Offenders Costs More than Anticipated.
[8] La Crosse Tribune. GPS Ankle Bracelet Monitoring of Low-Risk Offenders Costs More Than Anticipated.
[9] More Law Enforcement Agencies Turning to Electronic Monitoring.
[10] The Marshall Project. Living With an Ankle Bracelet: Freedom, with conditions. 07/16/2015. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Hwhe5VLa4.
[11] More Law Enforcement Agencies Turning to Electronic Monitoring. See also Moving Beyond Money Bail: A Primer on Bail Reform http://cjpp.law.harvard.edu/assets/FINAL-Primer-on-Bail-Reform.pdf.
[12] Kilgore, James. Electronic Monitoring Is Not The Answer: Critical reflections of a flawed alternative. 10/2015
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBAT07UEWug
[14] https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/portable-devices/lets-stop-using-ankle-bracelets-to-monitor-offenders and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ijwP63uKFw at 4:46