Freed Without Freedom: Citizenship and Surveillance for People on Pretrial Release

In this project, I consider how surveillance during pretrial release further exacerbates social inequalities, particularly around race and class. I utilize two sources of data. First, I conducted ethnographic observations of pretrial hearings in Chicago’s central criminal courthouse. Second, I conducted in-depth interviews with 58 people on pretrial release (that is, people who were bonded out while awaiting trial) to show how citizenship rights, such as due process and freedom of religion, are denied to people awaiting trial. The findings call into question the idea that criminalized people are truly “innocent until proven guilty,” especially for Black and Latinx people who are often construed as “risky” or “dangerous” by state actors. Instead, I argue that pretrial surveillance is a form of poverty governance, whereby people charged with a crime must adhere to certain behavioral regulations or otherwise be at risk of facing harsher modes of surveillance.