Proponents say the devices have helped address inequities in the criminal justice system. But many defendants have experienced unintended consequences.

More and more defendants across the country are being placed on electronic monitors, part of an ambitious effort to prevent overcrowding in the nation’s jails and keep people from being imprisoned while awaiting trial for minor offenses.

Like courts in Baltimore, Dallas and Los Angeles, the St. Louis city circuit court is among those that have embraced electronic monitoring as a powerful reform of the cash bail system. The number of new monitors activated here more than doubled from the first half of 2021 to the first half of 2024, when it surpassed 550, a New York Times analysis found.

But in that time, St. Louis has had to grapple with some unforeseen complications — including technological mishaps, privacy concerns and high costs — that offer lessons to other courts. More significantly, the devices are now worn by hundreds of people who most likely would not have stayed in jail anyway.

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