NCJ Number
174535
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 42 Issue: 2 Dated: June 1998 Pages: 149-163
Date Published
1998
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study analyzes how participants on electronic monitoring experienced the sanction in ways similar to those sentenced to jail or prison.
Abstract
New methods for punishing offenders, including electronic monitoring, seem to be less punitive, but many convicted offenders prefer jail or prison to many of the intermediate sanctions. This article focuses on the way 27 participants on electronic monitoring in Norfolk, VA, experienced pains of imprisonment similar to yet qualitatively different from those experienced by offenders sentenced to jail or prison. Pains similar to the pains of imprisonment included deprivation of: autonomy (92.6 percent), goods and services (85.2 percent), liberty (33.3 percent), heterosexual relations (29.6 percent), and security (3.7 percent). In addition, offenders on electronic monitoring experienced additional pains: monetary costs, family effects (including some positive effects such as sharing time together), watching the effects on others, and physical problems connected with wearing the bracelet. Tables, notes, references