E-Carceration

E-carceration is the use of technology to deprive people of their liberty.

E-carceration is short for “electronic incarceration.” E-carceration is when authorities, like police or immigration agents, use surveillance technology to monitor people. Most people know this as “house arrest”— when an ankle shackle is put on a person that tracks their location and prevents them from leaving their home.

While this includes devices used to monitor individuals (like ankle monitors) it also includes technology that gathers information about communities.

These technologies make it easier for authorities to control more people, and expose more communities to the criminal justice system. While they might seem like they address our mass incarceration problem, they can actually make it worse in the long run.

Abolishing the criminal and immigration systems that surveil, harass, and criminalize communities is the first step in creating a society that prioritizes people over punishment systems.

Stay tuned for more information about how you can join the fight to end E-carceration.

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From 2008- 2011, Freedom to Thrive (Formerly Enlace) undertook strategic research on mass incarceration and deportations. In 2011 Freedom to Thrive launched the Prison Industry Divestment Campaign to address the root causes of harm to communities of color caused by the Criminal and Immigration System.

Freedom to Thrive (Formerly Enlace) works to create a world where safety means investment in people & planet and to end the punishment-based criminal and immigration systems. For additional information visit Freedom to Thrive’s webpage.

The Prison Industry Divestment Campaign targets the State and corporations as root causes of criminalization, incarceration, and violence against our communities. We have waged successful campaigns against politicians, Wall St, banks, and prison industry corporations.

Our research has followed how the State and Corporations have expanded prisons to our homes through electronic shackles and other forms of prisons, and the connections between Police, ICE, and Border Patrol.

The Campaign has since become a national movement bringing together Black, Brown, and LGBTQ communities to divest from criminalization and incarceration, and demand reparations and investment in our communities!