A Second Chance for Those Who Made a Poor Choice

Wood, Graeme. “Prison Without Walls.” Atlantic Magazine. The Atlantic Monthly Group, Sep. 2010. Web. 27 Jan. 2011.

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Graeme Wood has brought to our attention that convicted criminals are being sent out into the society with one condition, they have to be wearing a device on their leg. This device is also known as BI ExacuTrack AT. This device has a GPS installed and the felon’s parole officer will be able to track them quite easily. Wood mentioned the numbers of how expensive it is to hold prisoners in jail, especially in California. For one prisoner to be held for a year was about $50,000 dollars. This is a ridiculous number. He also mentioned this device would work if the crime rate was really high, but he did some research and he found it being exactly the opposite. He also found that when criminals are let out of prison they normally go right back to prison because they have committed another crime. He had also found in a study that those who are in prison come out more tough than when they went into prison, which makes them more of a threat to the society. That’s why this device is a plus because the person is able to go out into the streets and live their everyday life. This device will save the country lots of money, the outcome will be better than having someone locked up, and the crime rate may in fact get lowered. The prisoner will also meet with his probation officer and attend classes. The probation officer is able to track his parolees and they will be alerted if they go to a certain place they aren’t supposed to be at. They can also watch where they go and memorize their daily schedule. By doing this, the criminal is able to still be with their families, work daily, and have a semi-normal life.

This subject is important to think about because we need to see that sure there may be criminals walking the earth but they are being monitored, whereas, there are criminals walking the earth that aren’t being monitored. Who are we to lock someone up and not let them live a normal life, because they made a bad decision? Those who are in jail because they were at the wrong spot at the wrong time should still have consequences but shouldn’t be held hostage. He points out that people may freak if they see someone wearing an ankle bracelet but that shouldn’t be scary, that should relieve us. This should show that someone is monitoring them. He encourages us to see that prison is this horrible place and people who do wrong should go there but, in reality no one could get something good out of staying in there? He explains that this box may just have to symbolize the criminal’s conscience because they may not be strong enough to have their own. This box shows them that they should be in a far worse place than where they are at now, but they are in the real world doing things they never thought they would be doing because of something they did. This may give them hope and they may learn that there is good in this world, that they may get a second chance.