Part 3: The Business of Bail Reform Series - Who Profits When Commercial Bail Dies

The Electronic Monitoring Industry Found its Growth Engine

By JL Fullerton

The latest article in the Business of Bail Reform Series by JL Fullerton, covers electronic monitoring. When Illinois became the first state to eliminate all forms of secured bail in September 2023, the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services also expanded its electronic monitoring services to 70 of Illinois 102 counties—many of which had never used the technology.

Today, Cook County alone monitors more people electronically than the entire state of New Jersey. The profit model depends on a critical asymmetry: companies charge defendants $10-$40 per day for GPS monitoring while billing governments only $2-$3 per day. Setup fees add $100-$300, and unlike bail premiums, these fees are never refundable—even if charges are dismissed. Meanwhile, if the same individuals who have been forced to pay for electronic monitoring had simply been put on a financially secured bond, they would have not only paid less but would have been provided with a less intrusive pretrial release mechanism.

In Mountlake Terrace, Washington, the city charges defendants $20 daily while paying contractors $5.75, netting $50,000- $60,000 annually in profit from accused individuals presumed innocent. As you can see in the bullet points below, the explosion in usage of electronic monitoring has been dramatic, especially in those cities and jurisdictions where bail reform policies have been implemented.

• Harris County, Texas: EM usage exploded from 27 people (2019) to nearly 4,000 (2021)
• California: EM usage tripled (200% increase) post-reform
• San Francisco: EM population grew from 60 (2016) to 1,659 (2021)
• New York: Pretrial EM population rose 64% from September 2018 to September 2020

Yet research contradicts the premise that monitoring reduces incarceration. An MDRC study found EM "neither increased court appearances nor reduced new arrests." The Vera Institute documented that EM expansion is "often not associated with reduction of the jail population." San Francisco, Harris County, and Cook County all report jail populations stable or rising despite massive EM expansion—suggesting monitoring supplements rather than replaces detention.

Stay tuned for the next article in the Business of Bail Reform Series, Part 4: Risk Assessment Tools Cost Nothing Upfront but Extract a Different Price

Read other articles in the series…

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: When Private Prison Companies Promote Bail Reform, Follow the Money