By Parole Officer J

My parolees are required to write a daily journal. Because this is such a physically distant and long-term bondage activity, it’s important to know what is going on in the parolee’s head. Are they happy? Pissed off? Feeling that they are being controlled? I need to know so I can help them avoid a full parole violation.

Having the parolee wearing a physical ankle monitor locked on their ankle is great! That makes part of the experience how to respond when someone discovers they are locked down. It also requires them to spend time “chained” to an outlet while they charge the ankle monitor. They can’t leave it home, their activity around their house is now limited further by the length of “chain” that charges the ankle monitor. There is typically no charge indicator so the parolee must charge without knowing if the device is nearly full or almost drained of power. The lights on the ankle monitor can’t be turned off, at night the blinking and flashing lights may be visible in a dark room. The ankle monitor has an expense for the physical device as well as recurring fees for the tracking and monitoring service.

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