Smart Prisoners: Uses of Electronic Monitoring in Brazilian Prisons during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This paper discusses the electronic monitoring (EM) of indicted and convicted citizens in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. We start by discussing how EM was implemented in the country and describing its close link with the technology company Spacecom. We argue that the use of EM to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in the Brazilian prison system intensifies the continuation of an uninterrupted mechanism of social control that is sustained by systemic racism in Brazil through a growing link between the State and technology companies. Mapping the changes that EM imposes on criminal legal practices, reflecting on data access and management carried out by private companies, and analyzing the acceleration of this process during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil are topics addressed herein.