The Marshall Project

My GPS-Tracked Life on Parole

“Even in prison, I didn’t feel so overwhelmed with worry about doing something wrong when I’m doing everything right.”

Editor’s note: Thousands of people in the United States, including many people on probation or parole, have their movement and activities monitored by the government through electronic tracking devices. We asked one of them—James Baimbridge, a Houston-area man who wears an ankle bracelet—to take photos of his life under surveillance and share his experience.

I was released from the Ferguson Unit, a prison in Madison County, Texas, in April, but in many ways I am still confined.

As part of my parole, I wear a that tracks my whereabouts. When I’m not home—right now, that’s transitional housing in the Houston

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