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This paper studies the effect of pretrial electronic monitoring
(EM) relative to both pretrial release and pretrial detention (jail).
EM often involves a defendant wearing an electronic bracelet,
which aims to reduce pretrial misconduct at a low cost. Using
the quasi-random assignment of bond court judges, I estimate the
effect of EM versus release and EM versus detention on pretrial
misconduct, case outcomes, future recidivism, and aggregate total
costs. Results indicate that EM reduces overall costs relative to
detention. However, EM does not prevent enough high-cost crime
to justify its use relative to release.
