New Report from Vera: People on Electronic Monitoring

There is a new report out today from Vera: People on Electronic Monitoring.

It includes comprehensive data collection on the use of electronic monitoring around the world, including by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

You can access the full report here.

Here is the abstract:

Electronic monitoring (EM) is a form of digital surveillance that tracks people’s physical location, movement, or other markers of behavior (such as blood alcohol level). It is commonly used in the criminal legal system as a condition of pretrial release or post-conviction supervision and for people in civil immigration proceedings who are facing deportation.

EM has been shown to carry substantial emotional and physical harms, place onerous restrictions on people’s lives, compromise people’s privacy, and present an ongoing threat of incarceration. However, in contrast to other aspects of incarceration and community supervision, there is no national survey or reporting requirement for the number of people on EM. This report fills a gap in understanding around the size and scope of EM use in the United States.

This figure from the report is striking and shows the rise of electronic monitoring in the civil immigration system, as compared to the criminal legal system.

IE