My teacher, the ankle monitor

It was years ago, hiking down Embudo Canyon, when we crossed paths. He wore designer jogging shorts and, I assumed, a suit to work.

As we exchanged pleasantries, my eyes drifted down to the black box hugging the man’s ankle. He noticed my gaze, and the small talk stopped awkwardly.

I can’t tell you much else. The memory got chalked up to that GPS monitor; the image of it became the man, defining him, in my memory.

I didn’t wonder what chile he preferred or if he had children at home. I only pondered what crime he had committed. And if I’m being honest, I walked away with a sense that he was dangerous — for no good reason.

But here’s the deal, that man was likely on pretrial release — meaning he had not been judged by a jury of his peers. Innocent, until proven otherwise.

I thought back to the man in August as Marshall Dixon, with the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts, strapped a similar monitor onto my ankle.

Dixon runs the team tracking defendants who are released on a GPS monitor awaiting trial and asked if I wanted to try one for a week during an interview.

For those who haven’t had the pleasure, the placement of a GPS monitor alone is enough to want to inflict some pain back onto the unfeeling device. Its thick plastic strap cut into my ankle within seconds — despite being fit correctly — and I found myself adjusting it every half-hour, its skin-print staring back at me.

Although having to charge the device daily for two hours was an annoyance, I work at a desk much of the day. I can imagine it growing unmanageable with a non-office job or the duties of a parent or both.

And before you say, “Oh well, they should have thought of that before,” the people we are talking about have not been found guilty of anything.

For my stint, there were also little surprises.

Driving up Menaul one evening a deafening beep filled the car and I felt my blood pressure rise thinking this very un-car sound meant my car was having some massive failure. It was only after I pulled over, heart racing, and turned off the motor that I realized the beep wouldn’t stop, not until I pressed a button on my ankle-box.

I had told Dixon I wanted the full experience, so he told AOC staff to ding me, in the same way they notify a defendant “something’s up, get in touch.” To have that happen during a job interview or while out on a date, or in front of your child, would be horrifying.

The things I did expect, and the exposure I sought most in my journey, however, did not come. Everywhere I went I wore low-top sneakers and basketball shorts but my new accessory didn’t catch a single dirty look or second glance. I had Dixon set two of those destinations — a Smith’s grocery store and my doctor’s office — as “exclusion zones,” meaning the box would alert AOC staff once I went there.

They, in turn, would send me a signal via a vibration. But, out of the three trips I took to those locations, the box only vibrated during one grocery store trip. Like Dixon said during our interview, “Technology is not perfect 100% of the time.”

You know what else isn’t perfect? The criminal justice system. And when it comes to controlling people’s freedom, the system needs to be careful to prevent unnecessary harm.

At the end of it all, I thought back on my interaction with the trail runner and the many headlines and political soapboxes propped up on the debate around ankle monitors.

I expected and, to some degree, wished for the dirty looks and suspicious questioning from the world at large.

When I walked away with much less, I wondered, had Albuquerqueans become so accustomed to the sight of the device?

Or did they see an ankle monitor for what it represents: That those who wear one are innocent until proven otherwise. I suspect that’s not the case, as I was once in those shoes — years ago, hiking down Embudo Canyon.

I hope the system gave him a fairer shake than I did.