Northeastern, post-industrial cities have some of the highest rates of incarceration, parole and foster care management in the United States. In this essay, I focus on one woman, who I call Kira, to explore ethnographically the lived experience of institutional surveillance in the post-industrial, northeastern city. Written as an analysis of fieldwork completed in a major post-industrial center, this essay traces the emergence of an anxious affect that tethers Kira’s intimate and structural relationships. I show how this affective subjectivity has serious structural implications for the duration and intensity of state surveillance, as well as the possibilities for freedom and continuity in Kira’s world. Through engagement with affect and object relations theory, this paper works through the subjective experience of political-economic marginalization and surveillance in the inner-city. I conclude with reflections on the ethical implications of ethnography and the broader stakes for an anthropology embedded in these types of affective relationships.