Defendants on GPS ankle monitors pay $10-$35/day and cannot shower freely

When defendants are released pretrial on electronic monitoring as an alternative to cash bail, they are typically required to wear a GPS ankle monitor. In most jurisdictions, the defendant pays for the monitor, not the government. Fees range from $10 to $35 per day depending on the provider and jurisdiction. For a defendant awaiting trial for six months, that is $1,800 to $6,300 out of pocket. If the defendant cannot pay, they may be returned to jail for a technical violation, not because they committed a new crime or missed court. Beyond the financial burden, ankle monitors create daily physical and social humiliation. The devices are bulky, visible, and cannot be removed. Showering requires wrapping the device in plastic to avoid water damage; if the device gets wet and malfunctions, it can trigger a false tamper alert and lead to arrest. Wearers report skin irritation, open sores, and infections at the monitor site. Employers who see the device often terminate or refuse to hire the wearer. The Challenging E-Carceration project at the MediaJustice Foundation documented that 75% of monitored individuals reported the device negatively impacted their employment. This persists because electronic monitoring is presented as a humane alternative to incarceration, which makes it politically difficult to criticize. Legislators and judges view it as a compromise: the defendant is not in jail, so the system appears to be working. Meanwhile, the private companies that manufacture and manage the monitors (like BI Incorporated, a subsidiary of GEO Group) profit from per-day fees and have no incentive to reduce monitoring duration or cost. The structural problem is that electronic monitoring shifts the cost of pretrial supervision from the state to the defendant while maintaining many of the liberty restrictions of jail. It creates a two-tiered system: those who can afford the daily fees remain free, and those who cannot are re-incarcerated for poverty, the same fundamental injustice that cash bail produces.