Wearing an ankle monitor instead of spending time in prison can offer a significant amount of freedom. However, it can be embarrassing to constantly explain why you are wearing a GPS or SCRAM ankle monitor. There are a few ways to minimize the visual effect of an ankle monitor while also increasing comfort.
Wearing Loose Pants
Luckily over the past couple of years, there has been a trend towards looser-fitting pants. Gone are the days of skin-tight and ankle-hugging jeans. This means that you are no longer limited to sweatpants and unfashionable bell bottoms. Instead, try out a thicker straight leg denim (in style for both men and women) or an athletic sweatpant with elastic band at the bottom.
With the wide and baggy leg pants currently in fashion, there shouldn’t be a problem covering an ankle monitor. However, one thing to consider is the type of shoes you should wear. A wider-leg jean will often need a chunkier shoe to go with it, such as a thick trainer or workboot.
Pants for Hiding and Ankle Bracelet for Men
Men have fewer style options overall, but because of their larger nature, it’s really only slim-cut jeans that they need to stay away from. A straight-leg dress, cargo, or sweat pant should hide your ankle monitor for most occasions. You should still try things on before making any purchases. Another option is to hide it from below with a high ankled workboot.
Pants for Hiding an Ankle Bracelet for Women
With current style trends, women have a ton of options for ankle monitor fashion. It goes beyond just bootcut jeans and sweatpants. Try a 90’s style wide-leg pant or even a bit of a looser jogger. You mostly will want to stay away from anything that is skin-tight or exposed.
Cover it Up With an Ankle Monitor Cover
Sometimes you might not be able to get away with wearing long pants. In these situations, you can use an ankle monitor cover designed to look like a regular ankle brace. Even if you cannot completely disguise it, this ankle monitor cover will offer added comfort by preventing movement/chafing.
Wear Work Boots
This is a solution for both men and women, although for women, it may be a bit more challenging to find a boot with enough room to fit the ankle monitor. You will want to try different styles and shoes with an ankle monitor in place to see how it fits.
You can try this with different pants and styles of boot. For increased snugness and comfort, you might want to pull a long sock underneath the ankle monitor and then roll it over the top to cover the plastic.
Wear it Obviously
Typically wearing an ankle monitor means that the crime committed was not severe enough for incarceration. So while you may think everyone is judging you, it’s not the end of the world to just wear your ankle monitor in public.
How to Keep Your Ankle Monitor Dry
While there are solutions allowing you to keep an ankle monitor dry such as shower coverings, using one of these doesn’t help with the real reason that you aren’t allowed to submerge an ankle monitor.
Most ankle monitors are waterproof. The real reason you aren’t allowed to submerge them is because water blocks electronic and GPS signals. If you submerge your ankle monitor in more than a foot or two of water it will block the signal and send an alert to the authorities.
Additionally, while most ankle monitors are water resistant, they may still fail at a certain depth.