The Pros and Cons of House Arrest

Electronic Monitoring Bracelet Tracks Whereabouts

Shamontiel, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Dec 9, 2005 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

During the summer months when most people are wondering about the latest fashionable clothes they'll wear, people on House Arrest wonder how they're going to hide the 5-ouce ankle or bracelet devices containing transmitters tracking their whereabouts. Everything from bandannas, pants, and leg warmers have been used to cover the devices. But the "freed" people cannot control the 100 to 150 feet they are allowed to walk; the approved notices to go from home to work, school, substance abuse therapy, or visits to the probation office; the frequent drug tests; or the surprise visit from probation officers.

"If Valentine's Day comes around, please don't ask and expect us to be able to let you and your girlfriend go to Red Lobster for dinner. Please don't be upset when we tell you Christmas Day that you can't go to grandma's," says Carrie Alexander, a community corrections officer, in the book Sensible Justice by David C. Anderson.

House arrest originally was not done for the eventual rehabilitation of the inmate. It was implemented to create bed space for offenders who threatened the safety of the community and public at large. Non-threatening offenders were considered a lesser risk to the public. Any inmate charged as a sexual offender or domestic violence offender was not considered to be a viable candidate for house arrest or any other community-based incarcerations such as work search or work release. The offender is still considered incarcerated; the electric monitoring device keeps track of offenders 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

The monitoring system was first used in 1983 in New Mexico by a judge who got the idea from a Spiderman comic strip. "The push for a serious electronic monitoring program followed a year and a half of experiments with 'passive' monitoring devices like beepers and telephone robots that made periodic calls to offenders' homes," according to Anderson. With the '90s decades embracing cell phones, beepers, and other electronic devices, the idea of a transmitter that could keep track of prisoners seemed like a good idea. According to Anderson, 54% of people on house arrest would have gone to prison if it did not exist and 32% would be in jail. 14% have been sentenced to regular probation.

Even with the prisoners being allotted the freedom to be in a concentrated area with the transmitter on, some tried to be tricky. One pregnant woman lost weight and slipped out of the bracelet. Another person used Vaseline to slip in and out. Yet another person went so far as to cut their bracelet off with scissors and put it on a cat, who was at home during the time the prisoner was gone. Because the tracking device is only triggered when the prisoner is out of the allowed area, sometimes probationary officers do not know. The random calls to check on a prisoner's whereabouts can come in the form of voice recognition or a device on the phone that the bracelet or anklet must be put into, to prove the prisoner is home.

These devices are not perfect. Power surges, lightning strikes, waterbeds, cast iron bathtubs, and metal-clad mobile homes can manipulate the monitoring system. Regardless of the technical glitches, these machines help keep prisoners out of overcrowding jails. This does not mean that people on house arrest behave until the end of their term. In 2003, more than 234 people were murdered, 538 sexually abused by criminals on house arrest, and 5,000 disappeared altogether. A prisoner named Fred Carswell cooked and distributed crack cocaine in his grandmother's kitchen, since he was not allowed to go onto the street and sell it.

Sources:

Anderson, David C. Alternatives to Prison. New York: The New Press, 1998, pp. 37-51.

Bierman, Noah and Wanda DeMarzo. "Crimes underscore risks of 'house arrest' on
electronic monitors." High Beam Research. 17 Dec 2003.
http://www.highbeam.com.

Published by Shamontiel

Shamontiel is the author of Round Trip and Change for a Twenty, and in mid-October became the Chicago Tribune s Digital News Editor. She works on National Travel, Health and occasionally Breaking News, and w... View profile

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5,000 house arrest people disappeared in 2003.

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The Pros and Cons of House Arrest

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