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00:00 This woman spent the bulk of her pregnancy in overcrowded Senegalese prison cells.
00:07 Awaiting trial, she would share a mattress with up to three other women.
00:12 Now, she's back at home, thanks to what's being hailed as a first in West Africa.
00:19 She's being monitored via an electronic bracelet.
00:23 There are a lot of women over there, and there's no place for you.
00:29 The most you can do is help women get home, even if it has to be with a bracelet.
00:35 Give the women the bracelets, because women belong at home.
00:41 Like most countries in Africa, Senegal's prisons are old, overcrowded,
00:47 and unable to manage thousands incarcerated for petty crimes or those in pretrial lock-up.
00:53 This year, it launched the Electronic Supervision Pilot Scheme.
00:58 The government says it is the first in West Africa to do so.
01:02 Lieutenant Moussidjie leads the prison monitoring team at a command centre in Dakar.
01:08 So, first and foremost, the aim is to combat prison overcrowding.
01:13 So today you have 200. That's the equivalent of a big prison.
01:17 We've already replaced a big prison because people are getting out.
01:20 200 is extraordinary.
01:23 If successful, Senegal's electronic monitoring could become a blueprint for other countries with clogged jails.
01:29 The inmate population exceeds prison capacity in 42 out of 47 African countries and territories
01:36 where data is available, according to the World Prison Brief database.
01:42 But there are also concerns.
01:44 Sadi Gassama, head of Amnesty International in Senegal,
01:47 says there are many African countries where ankle monitors could be useful.
01:51 But he added that it's not a solution to the problem of the continent's overcrowded prisons.
01:57 Which is a problem of insufficient staff, staff training and, above all,
02:02 a need for an increase in the budgets of the ministries of social welfare,
02:06 which are generally the smallest budgets in any country on the continent.
02:11 Critics also say underlying causes include harsh punishments for minor crimes and slow-moving judicial systems.
02:19 Another issue cited is that the bracelets require charging,
02:23 excluding people in poorer areas without access to electricity.
02:27 And rights groups also warn that in authoritarian regimes,
02:31 they may be used for surveillance purposes.
02:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]