This story is part of an ongoing series on youth justice. Part 1: An outlier in youth incarceration. Part 2: Reforms promised, then abandoned. Part 3: Womb-to-prison pipeline.

Kids in Philly call it being “on the band.” In recent years, the city’s juvenile justice system has rapidly expanded its use of GPS-equipped ankle monitors to enforce curfews and house arrest.

Today, Philadelphia is tracking teens’ whereabouts at a scale unmatched in any other U.S. city.

Court officials have billed the ankle monitors as a humane and cost-effective alternative to locking up teens in institutions that are expensive, plagued by abuse scandals, and linked to increased recidivism.

But an Inquirer examination of city and state records, along with interviews of teens, parents, lawyers and others involve

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