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Abstract: 

No countries have embraced electronic monitoring with more enthusiasm than England and Wales, but successive generations of British neoliberal policy makers—and the Ministry of Justice’s obsession with controlling every aspect of procurement through a series of five-year contracts—led to a system plagued by unrealized promises, questionable priorities, cost overruns, and charges of corruption. Reform groups, which should have played a major part in developing appropriate policies for EM that could achieve substantive results, instead stood on the sidelines and refused to acknowledge any legitimate role for EM monitoring, and the prestige and influence of reformers suffered as a consequence. Recent pilot programs by local police and probation departments are beginning to show real progress, and could finally resolve the question of how best to use EM to serve the public interest—if the central authorities will allow it.

Keywords: Growing Influence of “Tech” in British Justice; EM and the “Neoliberal” Experiment; Outsourcing; Five-Year Contracts; Policy Exchange Report; UK Ministry of Justice; “New World” GPS Tracking Program

Affiliations:  1: Journal Editor.