Stoneleigh Senior Program Officer Marie Williams reflects on how the use of electronic monitoring for justice-involved young people has devolved from its original intent as a motivational tool to become a form of constructive incarceration, with few if any links to the promotion of prosocial behavior.
In the 1960s, when electronic monitoring (EM) was developed by Robert and Kirk Gable at Harvard University, Robert Gable says they envisioned it as a way to monitor juvenile offenders and “to give rewards to [them] when they were where they were supposed to be … in a drug treatment session, or … school or a job.” Today, the use of electronic monitoring for justice-involved young people has devolved from its original intent as a motivational tool to become a form of constructive incarceration, with few if any links to the promotion of prosocial behavior.
Further, electronic monitoring stigmatizes young people and impedes meaningful, supportive relationships with a positive peer group. In fact, given what we now know about positive youth development, there is serious doubt that an electronic monitoring device strapped to the body of a child can be anything other than a detriment to rebuilding their lives after coming into contact with the legal system. In many jurisdictions, electronic monitoring is used solely to surveil and sanction children, drawing them deeper into justice system involvement.