An everyday experience of surveillance: Those sentenced to electronic monitoring

Electronic monitoring was introduced in Belgium at the dawn of the 21st century as an alternative mode of custody that deprives the individual of his or her freedom while the sentence is served outside prison walls. Based on an anthropology of everyday life, I conducted empirical fieldwork combining ethnographic observations and comprehensive interviews. It sheds light on the experience of those sentenced with electronic monitoring in French-speaking Belgium. Like previous researches in the field, it examines the dual role played by the “hosting and guiding environment” that surrounds the inmate, constantly oscillating between assistance and control. The article goes further by highlighting the fragmented and intermittent nature of this particular form of surveillance, which renders the monitored individual partially visible and induces a strong sense of responsibility and of virtually never-ending stress.