SuperCom Ltd

SuperCom Ltd. is an Israeli company that provides electronic monitoring, cybersecurity, and digital identity products to government agencies, multinational companies, and small to midsize businesses. It operates in at least 20 countries, including the U.S., Israel, U.K., Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Latvia, Moldova, Panama, Romania, Sweden, Tanzania, and Zanzibar.

Through its subsidiary Leaders in Community Alternatives (LCA)—acquired in 2016—SuperCom provides electronic monitoring (EM) technologies to government agencies in the U.S. and internationally. The company’s primary surveillance products are used to monitor individuals who are incarcerated, awaiting trial, or on parole or probation. These products include radio frequency EM “bracelets”; devices used for monitoring individuals on house arrest or for “indoor surveillance” of people in carceral settings; a smartphone monitoring platform equipped with GPS and biometric technology; an EM app—marketed specifically to survivors of domestic violence—that “identifies [and alerts users of] offender movement and behavior patterns”; and SCRAM alcohol monitoring devices. 

SuperCom and LCA have rapidly expanded their e-carceration operations in the U.S., having won 10 new surveillance and monitoring contracts between 2021 and 2022 alone. During this time, SuperCom was awarded contracts by state agencies in California, Idaho, Kentucky, Texas, and Wyoming for the GPS monitoring of both adults and juveniles on probation. The company also expanded its business in  Canada, Central America, and Europe. Between 2022 and July 2024, it announced new GPS monitoring contracts with government agencies in Canada, Croatia, Finland, Romania, Sweden, and other European countries. These contracts alone will put over 16,000 individuals under the company’s surveillance. This “rapid expansion…into the US market” has also been facilitated by SuperCom’s launch of two new EM tools in 2022: its PureProtect “domestic violence monitoring solution” and PureOne all-in-one GPS tracking ankle "bracelets."

SuperCom and LCA continue to shift the cost of e-carceration to those they monitor, a disproportionate number of whom are low-income individuals and/or people of color. In 2018, the companies were sued in California by Equal Justice Under Law for extortion and racketeering. The class action lawsuit alleged that LCA forced individuals to pay $25 per day for the use of their EM devices, regardless of their ability to pay. If individuals were unable to pay, LCA threatened to report them for non-compliance, ostensibly sending them back to jail. Some individuals testified that they were forced to give up their homes, borrow money from family and friends, or sell their belongings in order to pay LCA’s exorbitant fees. In 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the company did not extort fees from its clients, although it likely engaged in “‘hard bargaining’ techniques.”

In addition to selling e-carceration products, LCA operates several adult and juvenile “reentry” centers or Day Reporting Centers (DRCs) under contracts with county probation departments across California. In March 2024, for example, the company was awarded a contract worth up to $2 million to provide a jail-based “reentry” program at an unnamed California jail. Two years prior, LCA entered two new contracts, worth $5.25 million, with California probation departments for adult “reentry,” day reporting, and post-release employment services. Under these contracts, the company has significantly expanded the scope of its reentry services to include not just non-residential, “community-based” centers, but also jail-based sites.

Through its DRCs and residential reentry programs, LCA offers substance use treatment, vocational training, parenting classes, behavioral therapy, and other so-called treatment-oriented services. Marketed as programs that reduce recidivism and assist formerly incarcerated individuals with “a smooth transition back into their communities,” these for-profit “reentry” services have long been criticized by activists, prison industry researchers, and program “participants” for expanding the reach of the criminal punishment system and prolonging periods of state monitoring.

SuperCom has claimed that its clients include all major Israeli institutions, including Israeli military agencies, infrastructure companies, and banks. According to a 2021 company statement, SuperCom was awarded a $3 million-per-month contract by the Israeli government for the lease of the company’s COVID-19 Quarantine Compliance Solution for monitoring travelers placed on home quarantine after entering into the country. This project was never operationalized. (Investigate does not have information on additional contracts with Israeli institutions.)