Many of the most progressive countries in the world are making use of technology to promote rehabilitation and reduce incarceration. Yet blue states like Massachusetts and left-leaning advocacy organizations remain hostile to use of electronic monitoring (EM) methods. They are overlooking the benefits of EM—even from a progressive standpoint.
Progressives’ typically formulated criminal justice goal is laudatory: to minimize incarceration consistent with public safety, and to maximize the rehabilitation of offenders. But achieving these ends has been, to say the least, problematic.
Progressives commonly urge more addiction treatment and mental health services as steps toward rehabilitation. These treatments might be beneficial for many ex-offenders, but by themselves they are unlikely to sharply curtail recidivism.
Vocational training is also useful, but success measured by societal reintegration of ex-offenders is unproven. Despite all that we’ve learned about rehabilitation over the last five decades, the inescapable fact is that over 80% of all prisoners are rearrested for new crimes at some point after they are released.
let’s see this idiot professor back up his statement when it becomes lifetime, such as Wisconsin does for cp with one conviction.
Let them try and put a GPS tracking device on me I would literally raise Hell like you’ve never seen before, I would have nothing to lose at that point.
As for now I’m just killing time or should I say time is killing me, either way people force to register can no longer hide in the shadows, even if you tried they’d just hunt you down and Harass you every couple of years you’ll never find peace.
Pay attention to how easy they took people who were not listed on the registry and placed them in Tier3 and now there publicly listed on Megan’s law for life, with no remorse or thought about that person and there family.
I would never wear an EM. I’d go on the run to Mexico and then try an fly overseas and if i’m captured I’d commit suicide, because I’m never living in prison and I’m never wearing an Electronic Monitor.
Absent individualized assessment, the use of EM as a “one-size fits all” method of “crime control” is self-defeating for a number of offenders – and for a number of reasons. However, it may possibly be effective and helpful with some offenders (an unquantifiable number) who suffer from some form of mental, emotional, and/or psychological deficit, or who may have become addicted to drugs/alcohol that led them to commit aberrant/criminal acts. However, I believe that EM is quite counter-productive for those offenders who do not suffer from such maladies and present as low-risk (based on past histories and other factors).
The use of EM only serves to de-humanize. It serves to diminish or destroy any sense of self-respect, self-worth and value, and personal dignity. It sets individuals apart from others, leading to social isolation and alienation. It communicates that society views the individual as “less than” others, and that they are essentially little more than “animals in the wild” who need to be tracked at all times, much like bears, wolves, or other predatory animals. In my opinion, it is counter-productive to rehabilitation and is an ineffective approach to the achievement of such goals.
Parentheticlly, even earnest attempts to individually assess an offender as to ‘future risk’ is no guarantee that the person will never again re-offend. And should one either be assessed as “unlikely to re-offend” or “low risk”, or even be fitted with an ankle monitor, and who THEN proceed to re-offend in a notorious way…well…so much for that approach (think Phillip Garrido/Jaycee Duggard. Garrido was fitted with an ankle bracelet and was under the supervision of “qualified and professionally trained probation officers”).
Well I just posted over there on the website. Just to let you guys know that I’m in Wisconsin, one charge of 10 counts of possession, and I wear a lifetime GPS. I am on my 8th unit this year. 13th unit in 4 years. The unit I am wearing right now is 3 weeks old, will probably be dead in a week or two. If I was on probation I would be in jail every time a unit failed. But thank God I’m not anymore. Whenever they call me, they call me on a private number. Which I answer, very nicely! Not! I am extremely rude, and tell them off all the time. Wisconsin charges me $240 a month to be monitored, which is the highest amount that they charge in Wisconsin. This is nothing but a money grab by the state. One of these days I hope to move out of Wisconsin, have the GPS be removed and live my life peacefully in another state, or country!
Call it progress if you like Professor. Those bearing these machines are indentured servants. Nothing new about that human condition.
The machines are leased by contract and not owned by the people. Oh how the fascists love public private partnerships like these to pad their coffers! For social benefit we will embrace the old, augment with the new and call it human progress rather than systematic subservience. Autocracy on automatic. Resistance is futile… You must comply.
This article includes many distorted perceptions about the bracelet (EM) real ability. A man can certainly still do murder wearing one. He could still DL-CP & UL-CP. He could still commit armed robbery or suicide.
“1. EM help avoid… and reintegrate.” Avoiding reincarnation cannot be a valid reason in of itself to engage in EM primarily because incarceration is the standard affirmative disability and restraint. This notion suggests the cheaper option is the BEST option for public safety. (especially if you’re disagreeing it is the same old historical tools are being used to punish the criminal- indentured servitude)
Is it cheaper to use EM? Yes but at a cost to safety. And that is not the only costs. Consider the loss of liberty to maintaining the device, so it functions correctly. Every time the device or connection fails resources are needed to correct the problem by multiple parties. These include not just raw costs of time and labor but opportunity costs as well. In the end its not cheaper nor progressive at all. I believe it regressive if anything.
This professor has never met Kevin Carr, the Wisconsin DOC head who stated recently that “the state locks up too many people. Kevin Carr has also been doing photo ops touting his “progressive” reforms including early prison release (for druggies and dealers), and re-entry programs for former prisoners including a ruthless killer who made a “poor decision” when he was young. But you know who Kevin Carr thinks should not be part of those reforms? Anyone with the label sex offender—no matter how much data indicating their lower risk of reoffending. Kevin Carr will talk the game, but he’ll also tap dance & Uncle Tom (I can say that because I’m also black like he is) to politicians. Kevin is the boss of the WI DOC, so he can issue an edict to have ankle bracelets on low risk offenders removed right away. But instead, Kevin wants to wait for us to drag his little az through court. I’m glad I left that p.o.s. state of Wisconsin, but I feel for my fellow registrants who still live there and have to continue dealing with this clown leading the DOC
It’s not that there’s not disincentives to crime. The person knows what happens if they reoffend. People reoffend largely out of desperation. Most of the time the conditional release is so laden with restrictions and requirements that it makes it nearly impossible to not reoffend. Seriously, look at what was actually the re-offence. I’m willing to bet most of the time it has nothing to do with committing an actual crime and more about not being able to achieve an impossible task. And EM will not help these causes, in fact, they’ll likely make things worse, but making the person stick out more and often force an additional financial burden of paying for it.
All these experts still don’t seem to get at it is our system that’s causing the issue, and not the person’s lack of motivation. Corporations constantly whine about how hard regulations makes it for them to keep rolling in the billions, but try having regulations applied to your person.
Does anyone know where these bracelets are manufactured? Is there a tag or other information on the device itself? Model & manufacturers type stuff.