Chapter 1 provides an introduction to red zones and other bail and sentencing conditions of release through the stories of three individuals whose lives and rights are directly affected by them. It discusses the legal context in which such conditions are embedded, details about the methodology and conceptual framework, and provides a first statement of the book’s overall argument.

Chapter 2 establishes the theoretical and conceptual grounds on which the study lies, arguing that we can usefully conceive of spatial conditions of release through the lens of critical legal geography, emphasizing the work of law in producing powerful spatiotemporal arrangements and representations that act upon the social world. Spatial conditions of release are as a form of legal territorialisation, or a strategic attempt at structuring socio-legal relations through the configuring of space and time. By territorializing a set of legal commands, legal actors aim to communicate, classify, enforce, and legitimize. Focusing on the practical work of spatial conditions of release directs us to the work they do in organizing socio-legal relations. In particular, the authors note the complex and simultaneous relational work of “cutting” and “joining” they entail.