truancy

“Wearing An Ankle Bracelet Might Be Worse Than Jail Time”

This article by Julie Morse for the Pacific Standard summarizes some interesting research by UC Berkeley Law Professor Kate Weisburd. She did work on the use of electronic monitoring with juveniles in California and found that in many cases it failed to save money, was extremely punitive and often landed young people back behind bars. She calls for a re-think of the legal status of EM as well. Very thought-provoking and great to see that some legal scholars are now looking at this through a lens other than recidivism. Now we just need to deepen the dialog about the “rights of the monitored.”

Link to the article:

http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/wearing-an-electronic-monitoring-device-might-be-worse-than-jail-time

Link to Professor Weisbrud’s article on her research:

http://ilr.law.uiowa.edu/files/ilr.law.uiowa.edu/files/ILR_101-1_Weisburd.pdf

December 16, 2015 0

ELECTRONIC MONITORING IS NOT THE ANSWER-REPORT BY JAMES KILGORE

James Kilgore has written a new report which provides a set of critical reflections on the use of electronic monitoring in the criminal justice system and beyond. The report argues:

That electronic monitoring should be legally classified as a form of incarceration
That electronic monitoring should not be added to regimes of parole, probation or pre-trial release but only instead of incarceration
That we need regulations concerning the location tracking data that is generated by people on a GPS monitor
That we need a much more nuanced understanding of electronic monitoring before it is more widely implemented in the criminal justice system

The full report is available at the website of the Center for Media Justice.

October 17, 2015 0

“What you’re doing is telling kids it’s normal to be tracked”

Khaliah Barnes of the Electronic Privacy Information Center responded to the pilot project in Gordon County, GA which would put implement radio frequency (RFID) tracking on school buses. This would enable school officials (and anyone else with access to the system) to pinpoint the location of individual students who are supposed to be on the bus. Gordon County is but the latest in a string of school districts that have moved toward some kind of tracking of students. As Barnes said, “what you’re doing is tell kids its normal to be tracked.”

For the complete article, visit: http://www.ibtimes.com/invasion-privacy-rfid-tracking-kids-school-buses-privacy-advocates-concerned-attendance-management

We have reported in this blog on previous cases in Texas.

April 21, 2013 0

Texas Bill Would End Mandatory Tracking of Schoolkids

Texas House Bill 101 would rule out mandatory tracking devices for school students. The Bill states the following:

school district may not require a student to use an identification device that uses radio frequency identification technology or similar technology to identify the student, transmit information regarding the student, or track the location of the student.

This is an important step to stop this criminalizing of school children. For more information, visit: http://www.tagtexas.org/headline/action-alert-protect-texas-students-from-rfid-tracking-devices.html

April 9, 2013 0

GPS Monitoring Planned on School Buses in Tyler, TX

Texas leads the nation in finding ways to electronically monitor school children. Two schools in San Antonio are now requiring all students to carry GPS-linked I.D. cards on campus. Now Tyler TX schools want to give students a GPS card that they will have to swipe to get on a school bus so they can be tracked en route to school. The setup costs for this and GPS monitors on the bus will be $134,000 at a time when schools are slashing so many educational and extracurricular activities, how do they spare money for GPS systems? For the story go to: http://www.trackwhatmatters.com/bus-tracking

For more info on other tracking of school kids see David Rosen’s article at Salon.com:http://www.salon.com/2012/10/08/big_brother_invades_our_classrooms/

April 4, 2013 0

Monitoring of School Children On the Rise

Salon.com has reported that a wide variety of electronic monitoring of school children is on the rise. This includes GPS-linked student cards as well as the “traditional” ankle bracelet. Check out the article at:http://www.salon.com/2012/10/08/big_brother_invades_our_classrooms/

December 5, 2012 0