The number of people under electronic monitoring in Brazil, commonly known as ankle monitors, reached 91,632 in 2022. The contingent grew especially between 2019 and 2020 because of a recommendation by the CNJ (National Council of Justice) to reduce the infection of detainees amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The amount of device usage continued to increase over the next few years.
Between 2020 and 2022, the growth was at least 20 thousand more people per year monitored by the system. This is what data from the 17th Brazilian Public Security Yearbook published this Thursday (20) show.
In the publication, the Brazilian Public Security Forum assesses that the use and its expansion are positive and are associated with the reduction of prisoners in state cells, which concentrate most of the over 832,000 people in prisons in Brazil (88.9%).
Ankle monitors, which today reach a total of 11.1% of prisoners in the country, including federal ones, are part of measures taken in the context of reducing incarceration in the country. The STF (Federal Supreme Court) recognized, in 2015, the system's unconstitutional state of affairs.
Translated by Cassy Dias