Freelance reporter Matt Chapman fought for a year and a half to obtain public records showing how often people in Chicago under house arrest are falsely accused of leaving their homes. Electronic monitoring devices can falsely show that people are not in their homes as required, even though they are. With support from the Fund, Chapman analyzed hundreds of thousands of texts sent to 10,000 people; he wrote for the Triibe and the Chicago Reader that hundreds of them experienced false reports. Many people on pre-trial electronic monitoring told harrowing stories of visits from sheriff’s deputies, being wrongly jailed and other problems stemming from inaccurate technology.
After 18 months, grantee obtains records showing that monitoring of house arrests in Chicago leads to false accusations
