Decarceration

Canada is in the process of increasing its prison population. With tough on crime policies and prison expansion, we are sending more and more people to prison at a time when crime rates are at an all-time low. Non-violent and first-time offenders make up the majority of people serving time, and in provincial correctional facilities the majority of offenders are being held on remand (legally innocent and awaiting trial). If a prison, by nature, is a place of coercive confinement fostering violence and bullying, is it a suitable process for people who pose no imminent threat to the public to experience before inevitably being released back into a community? This thesis looks at an alternative to incarceration that uses an existing technology (electronic monitoring) as sentencing and a way of reducing the prison population. Rather than being removed from the community and the city altogether, offenders serve their sentences within their communities and amongst their support systems as a way of assimilating back as a rehabilitated member of a community. The exploration chronicles the perception of the city through space and time as defined by a sentencing technology.