Girls in the Juvenile Justice System are routinely having their phones and internet access removed as a part of court orders. Inspired by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems theory, this paper will demonstrate that phone removal causes a rupture to the girls’ digital ecology which exasperates the condition of strain in which crime and victimizations occur. Findings are generated from an ethnographic study that took place in a north eastern US city. This study looked at the role that phones and social media played in the criminalization and victimization of girls involved with the courts. 42 girls took part in focus groups and a series of interviews. 22 human service professionals were also interviewed. Over 50 hours were spent observing in court related meetings. Findings will demonstrate that removing the phone misunderstands the conditions and causes of technology facilitated crime and victimization along the online/offline binary. This research shows a phone is not simply an object but rather an environment and space full of social and structural interactions. Understanding the phone as part of a broader ecology illuminates why girls would subsequently commit more serious crimes to regain access to their digital ecology in an effort to protect themselves from harm.