Young Offenders, Electronic Monitoring, Cell Phones, and Battery Life

The Center for Court Innovation piloted a small electronic monitoring program—using smartphones—for young people under justice supervision. In this article, published in The Journal of Offender Monitoring, project planners conclude that electronic tracking of 16- to 18-year-olds in school raised multiple challenges and provided too little benefit to serve as a replacement for supervision methods tailored to address young people’s unique needs.

Drawing on the experience of the project, the article offers insights into the best ways to approach technology projects in the justice system. Ultimately, rather than a narrow focus on the problems associated with any monitoring technology—of which this program encountered no shortage—program creators should focus on the needs of individual participants and assess if a technology-based solution is the best fit for the goals the program is trying to achieve.