Discuss electronic monitoring and its technological advances.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. In the 1980s, the advent of electronic monitoring, which uses technology to guard prisoners, made home confinement more viable. Today, all fifty states and the federal government have home monitoring programs with about 125,000 offenders, including probationers and parolees, participating at any one time.According to some reports, the inspiration for electronic monitoring was a Spider-Man comic book in which the hero was trailed by the use of an electronic device on his arm. In 1979, a New Mexico judge named Jack Love, having read the comic, convinced an executive at Honeywell, Inc., to begin developing similar technology to supervise convicts.Two major types of electronic monitoring grew out of Love's initial concept. The first is a "programmed contact" system, in which the offender is contacted periodically by voice or text to verify his or her whereabouts. Verification may be obtained via a computer that uses voice or visual identification techniques, or the offender may be required to enter a code in an electronic box when called. The second is a "continuously signaling" device, worn around the convict's wrist, ankle, or neck. A transmitter in the device sends out a continuous signal to a "receiver-dialer" device located in the offender's dwelling. If the receiver device does not detect a signal from the transmitter, it informs a central computer, and the police are notified.As electronic monitoring technology has evolved, the ability of community corrections officials to target specific forms of risky behavior has greatly increased. Michigan courts, for example, routinely place black boxes in the automobiles of repeat traffic law violators. Not only do these boxes record information about the offenders' driving habits for review by probation officers, but they also emit a loud beep when the car goes too fast or stops too quickly. Another device-an ankle bracelet-is able to test a person's sweat for alcohol levels and transmit the results over the Internet.Critics contend that the practice of intermediate sanctions widens the net of the corrections system by increasing the number of citizens who are under the control and surveillance of the state and also strengthen the net by increasing the government's power to intervene in the lives of its citizens. Technological advances-such as the black boxes in automobiles, sweat-testing ankle bracelets, and GPS devices-will only accelerate the trend.