Early release from prison with electronic monitoring: Hook for or hindrance to change?

Abstract

In Finland, prisoners can be placed outside prison with electronic monitoring up to 6 months before their regular conditional release. This supervised probationary freedom entails electronic monitoring in one’s own home, participation in productive activities (work, education and rehabilitation), and other specified forms of supervision. This article explores prisoners’ experiences of early release with electronic monitoring by analysing qualitative interviews with 18 prisoners before and after their release from prison. Using the desistance theory of cognitive transformation, the author argues that while early release with electronic monitoring can function as a ‘hook for change’, inherent elements of the programme serve to hinder change and desistance from crime. Even if the combination of control and social support characterizing the Finnish regime of early release with electronic monitoring can help to promote social integration, it creates a vast and demanding sentence less successful in integrating prisoners into the labour market.