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Abstract: 

James Kilgore teaches criminal justice at the University of Illinois, but from 2009 to 2010 he wore an ankle bracelet as a condition of parole. Standing in his front yard at 2 A.M. in the cold Illinois night because his monitor had lost connection with the satellite, he wondered, who made up the rules for this device? In this article, Professor Kilgore shares what he learned from his experience on EM and from his conversations with other monitored offenders. EM, he concludes, is too often used without clear guidelines or principles that might ensure its consistent and fair application. Kilgore suggest ten basic principles for the use of electronic monitoring in conjunction with parole, eight practical guidelines that ensure fairness and efficacy, and five legal concepts that, if observed, would bring more just outcomes.

Keywords: EM and Parole; rights of monitored; reentry services; means tested user fees; technical violations of monitoring conditions

Affiliations:  1: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.