The Illinois state assembly’s judiciary committee is currently considering a radical bill on electronic monitoring. The submission, HB 3887, sponsored by State Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana, would ban daily user fees for electronic monitoring, provide credit for time served for all those on a monitor while awaiting trial, and guarantee a minimum of 8 hours of movement out of the house for anyone on a monitor.
This is a complete break with existing legislation. In most states electronic monitoring laws either just enable the use of monitors or focus on deepening the punitive aspect of EM through measures like making it a felony to tamper or remove a device or providing options to reincarcerate individuals for minor violations such as failure to charge the device’s battery or leaving the home without permission regardless of the circumstances. A fact sheet on the bill is attached here. The background research and framing of the bill was done by James Kilgore of the Illinois Campaign for Prison Phone Justice and the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.
Voice of the Monitored 