ISAP SNAFU, Part 2

Johana Bhuiyan, The Guardian, Mar. 8, 2022

"Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (Isap): The US government program was launched in 2004 as a “humane” alternative to detention for immigrants waiting for their cases to be heard in court, a surveillance system that was supposed to keep track of people in the program while helping them access social services. Selected by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers, immigrants in the program are electronically surveilled through an ankle monitor, voice recognition or the company’s proprietary tracking app until their court date, and meet regularly with a case manager. Holding an exclusive, $2.2bn five-year contract to run Isap for Ice is BI, a company that got its start in monitoring cattle and is owned by one of the country’s largest private prison corporations, the Geo Group. ... While Isap has allowed some immigrants to go home rather than remain in immigration jail, the program is hampered by fundamental flaws, according to Isap participants, their lawyers and sponsors, as well as 10 BI employees. They say BI’s technology is substandard, with ankle monitors causing bruising, overheating and at times sending out electroshocks and BI’s proprietary app frequently malfunctioning. Isap’s structure is as flawed as the tools it relies on, they argue, with arbitrary requirements and opaque decision-making processes inhibiting the ultimate goal of the program: transitioning out of it."