{"id":217114,"date":"2025-10-29T12:59:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/?p=217114"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:28:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:28:05","slug":"biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners","title":{"rendered":"Biometric bracelets for prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[2414],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-217114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-free-future"],"acf":{"header_layout":"standard","header_image":217116,"mobile_header_image":null,"description":"Invading privacy as well as \"barking up the wrong tree\"","authors":[1382],"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Subscribe to the Free Future Newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\r\n\r\nFree Future home<\/a><\/em>\r\n\r\nSome prisons and jails around the United States have started using non-consensual, non-removable biometric wrist straps on prisoners to monitor their pulse, blood oxygenation level, skin temperature, \u201cactivity level,\u201d and location. WBUR Radio<\/a> recently covered this technology, and our allies at EPIC wrote up a good privacy analysis<\/a> of the technology last year.\r\n\r\nThe ACLU\u2019s position is that non-consensual monitoring of a person\u2019s non-readily apparent physiological states is not just a privacy invasion but an assault on inherent human dignity and autonomy that should not be applied to prisoners or anyone else. Such monitoring can reveal nightmarishly intimate characteristics of one\u2019s body that might indicate fear, distress, excitement, arousal, and other states of mind.\r\n\r\nIn addition, EPIC points out that like their cousins ankle monitors, these wrist straps or watches are \u201chard, plastic, unremovable devices\u201d that, worn for a prolonged period, can have painful effects \u201cincluding swelling, numbness, bruising and blistering.\u201d\r\n\r\nI also asked my colleague David Fathi, director of the ACLU\u2019s National Prison Project, for his perspective on this technology as someone who has been fighting for prisoners\u2019 rights for over 25 years, and he had a number of interesting additional points to make. First, he observed that \u201cwhile prisoners do have attenuated privacy rights, one place the courts have held the line on prisoner privacy is medical information.\u201d He also noted that he didn\u2019t object to \u201cthe monitoring of prisoners\u2019 movements around a prison, which is something they can and should be surveilling the old-fashioned way with staff for prisoner safety.\u201d\r\n\r\nBut overall, Fathi told me, \u201cthis is barking up the wrong tree. It\u2019s trying to solve the wrong problem, and to do it on the cheap.\u201d\r\n
The fundamental problem isn\u2019t that prisons and jails don\u2019t have ways in theory of monitoring prisoners\u2019 health; it\u2019s that they don\u2019t have enough staff to do it. It\u2019s not that they don\u2019t know that a certain person has heart disease, it\u2019s that they don\u2019t have the staff to monitor and care for them appropriately. In many places prisoners have alarm buttons \u2014 but when they push them no one comes. In those places these devices will become just another alarm that nobody responds to because of these endemic and chronic staffing shortages.<\/blockquote>\r\n
The concern with this is that prisons will say \u201cWe don\u2019t have to hire more doctors, we\u2019ll just buy this technology.\u201d That this will be seen not as an adjunct to, but as a substitute for, having adequate staff. Even with the location tracking, you need the other half: if someone isn\u2019t where they\u2019re supposed to be, or hasn\u2019t changed locations so perhaps they are in medical distress \u2014 you need the staff to respond.<\/blockquote>\r\nFathi notes that technology can have a positive role in corrections:\r\n
There\u2019s a big problem of officers falsifying security checks on prisoners \u2014 the regular rounds that they\u2019re supposed to do. They say they\u2019re doing them but don\u2019t. But there are products that track officers on their rounds; the officer has a wand and has to physically tap a receptor beside each cell, which records that the officer was there and at what time. So technology can<\/em> be helpful in keeping people safe.<\/blockquote>\r\nI have written<\/a> before about the use of surveillance technology being called upon to serve as an empty and cheap substitute for more substantive reform of real problems. Some trucking companies and Amazon have pressured their drivers with dangerous<\/a> performance demands<\/a>, and then respond to the unhealthy results with micro-surveillance, behaving like factory farms that pump animals with drugs and antibiotics to unnaturally suppress the side effects of unhealthy and inhumane practices. This technology appears to be another example of the same thing."}}],"featured_cases_section":{"enable_featured_cases":false,"title":"Featured Cases","description":"","featured_cases":null},"action":[148399],"issues":[46641,46579,46637,46381,46375,46389,46567],"related_content_cases":"","related_content_documents":"","related_content_publications":"","related_affiliates":"","content_layout":"standard","theme":"light","drupal_nid":""},"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Civil Liberties Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Invading privacy as well as "barking up the wrong tree"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biometric bracelets for prisoners | ACLU\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Invading privacy as well as "barking up the wrong tree"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Civil Liberties Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-29T16:59:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-30T19:28:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jay Stanley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@aclu\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners\",\"name\":\"Biometric bracelets for prisoners | ACLU\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-29T16:59:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-30T19:28:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Invading privacy as well as \\\"barking up the wrong tree\\\"\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners\"]}],\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/jay-stanley\",\"name\":\"Jay Stanley\",\"jobTitle\":\"Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/jay-stanley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/photo\/jay-stanley\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2020\/09\/STANLEY_ACLU_01-headshot.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2020\/09\/STANLEY_ACLU_01-headshot.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Jay Stanley\"}}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\",\"name\":\"American Civil Liberties Union\",\"description\":\"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"Invading privacy as well as \"barking up the wrong tree\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Biometric bracelets for prisoners | ACLU","og_description":"Invading privacy as well as \"barking up the wrong tree\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners","og_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","article_published_time":"2025-10-29T16:59:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-30T19:28:05+00:00","author":"Jay Stanley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@aclu","twitter_site":"@aclu","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners","name":"Biometric bracelets for prisoners | ACLU","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-10-29T16:59:34+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-30T19:28:05+00:00","description":"Invading privacy as well as \"barking up the wrong tree\"","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/privacy-technology\/biometric-bracelets-for-prisoners"]}],"author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/jay-stanley","name":"Jay Stanley","jobTitle":"Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/bio\/jay-stanley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#\/schema\/person\/photo\/jay-stanley","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2020\/09\/STANLEY_ACLU_01-headshot.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/assets.aclu.org\/live\/uploads\/2020\/09\/STANLEY_ACLU_01-headshot.jpg","caption":"Jay Stanley"}}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/","name":"American Civil Liberties Union","description":"The ACLU dares to create a more perfect union \u2014 beyond one person, party, or side. Our mission is to realize this promise of the United States Constitution for all and expand the reach of its guarantees.","inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"American Civil Liberties Union","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217114"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217214,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217114\/revisions\/217214"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46567"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46389"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46375"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46381"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46637"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46579"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/46641"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/action\/148399"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bios\/1382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217114"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=217114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}