Courts are increasingly using some form of house arrest or home detention with electronic monitoring as an alternative to the traditional sentence of incarceration or keeping criminal defendants behind bars while awaiting trial.
This article will review what home detention is, how it works, the pros and cons, and potential penalties for violations.
What Is Home Detention?
Federal, state, and local laws use a number of different terms like house arrest, home detention, or home confinement. Although the specifics vary depending on the context and jurisdiction, all these terms refer to essentially the same thing: a program for releasing accused or convicted offenders to their homes with electronic monitoring and other restrictions.
Under home detention, the defendant typically wears some type of electronic ankle bracelet and is required to stay home except under very limited circumstances. A defendant, for instance, may be able to leave the home at set times to go to and from work or treatment or to pick up a child from childcare. Probation or parole officers can monitor the defendant’s whereabouts to ensure compliance with the conditions of home detention.
How Can a Defendant Request Home Detention?
The first thing to know is that not every jurisdiction has or allows home detention. Some local governments don’t have enough funding or resources or the technology and equipment to have the option of home detention. Other jurisdictions might have laws that limit when and how home detention can be used, including eligibility requirements (discussed below).
If it’s available in your jurisdiction and in your case, you should discuss the option and process with your attorney. Being on home detention might come with a daily fee, which can add up quickly. Your attorney can help you weigh the pros and cons and then negotiate with the prosecutor or make a formal request to the court.
Who’s Eligible for Home Detention?
Although the rules and laws vary from state to state (as well as in federal court), defendants are typically eligible to participate in home confinement in lieu of pretrial detention or a sentence of incarceration if they’ve been charged with or convicted of misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies, don't have a history of violent crimes, and haven’t violated previous home detention conditions. Juvenile courts also frequently use home confinement for minors who’ve committed nonviolent offenses.
Some states place very strict restrictions in their laws regarding who’s eligible and who’s not. In certain cases, a state’s law might mandate home detention and electronic monitoring as a condition of parole for convicted sex offenders.
How Do Home Detention and Electronic Monitoring Work?
The option of home detention is commonly used with or instead of bail, or as a condition of probation or parole.
Condition or in Lieu of Bail
If you’ve been charged with a crime, you usually have the right to be released on bail or on your own recognizance before trial. As a condition of release, the judge may require some type of home detention. Courts are starting to rely more on electronic monitoring as a form of supervised pretrial release to ensure that defendants show up for their court dates.
Condition of Probation
If you’ve pleaded guilty or are convicted of a crime, you may be able to shorten your jail sentence—or avoid going behind bars at all—by agreeing to house arrest as a condition of probation. The court may also order home detention after you’ve been convicted but before you’ve been sentenced.
Home Confinement While on Parole
When prisoners are released on parole—usually after serving a good part of their sentence—the parole board will impose conditions or “terms of parole.” Electronic monitoring and home detention may be included in the original parole conditions or added as a sanction for violating other parole terms.
What Are the Rules and Costs Associated With Home Detention?
Being on house arrest generally comes with rules or conditions and at a cost.
Rules and Conditions of Home Detention
Typical conditions for home confinement or detention include:
- curfew hours when you must be at home
- restrictions on where and why you may leave home, such as for work, education, medical and legal appointments, or court appearances
- having a landline phone, so that authorities know you’re home (with the help of voice recognition software) when you check in by phone or they call you, and
- regular drug or alcohol testing.
In the most restrictive form of house arrest, often called home incarceration, offenders must stay at home 24 hours a day except for very limited authorized absences.
Cost of Electronic Monitoring and Ankle Bracelets
If you’re under house arrest, you’ll generally have to wear an ankle monitor (also called an ankle bracelet, tether, or electronic shackle) with one of three types of monitoring technology:
- a radio-frequency transmitter that alerts authorities when you leave your residence
- GPS (global positioning system), which tracks all of your movements and whereabouts, or
- SCRAM (secure continuous remote alcohol monitoring), which detects any alcohol consumption and is often used with alcohol-related offenses.
Along with the stigma of wearing an ankle monitor—and the difficulty of getting or keeping some jobs when you’re wearing one—you’ll usually have to pay a fee for the privilege ($5 to $25 a day or more). Obviously, the cost can add up quickly and pose a significant barrier for low-income defendants who want to avoid jail.
Can a Defendant Get Off Home Detention Early?
If you’re on home detention as a condition of pretrial release, you’ll likely have to remain on home detention until trial. A judge might consider modifying your bail conditions if you’ve proven you’re not a flight risk by complying with all the conditions and showing up for court dates.
When it comes to probation, many states’ laws allow a judge to end probation early or modify the terms if a probationer has complied with all the conditions. For parole supervision, the supervising agency (such as the department of corrections) or the parole board would need to ok a request to end home detention or monitoring early.
Does Home Detention Take Time Off a Sentence?
In some states, you may be able to get credit on your sentence for all or a portion of the time you served in home detention, particularly when it includes electronic monitoring. For instance, this might happen when you were released on house arrest after you were convicted but before sentencing, or when you have to go back to jail after violating the terms of your confinement.
What Are the Consequences for Violating House Arrest?
Potentially, you could be rearrested and wind up behind bars again if you violate the conditions of home detention, including by removing or tampering with your ankle monitor. It could also be considered breaking the rules if the battery on your monitor runs down or malfunctions, or if you have to leave home suddenly because of a medical emergency and aren’t able to get advance approval from your supervising officer.
Generally, however, you’re entitled to a hearing where the judge or parole board will decide whether you violated the conditions of supervised release and, if so, whether to send you back to jail or prison.
Depending on where you live, you could also be charged with the crime of escape for violating house arrest rules, just as if you escaped from jail. A conviction for escaping from custody can carry felony penalties.
Speaking With Your Lawyer
If you’re interested in getting home detention as a condition of pretrial release or probation, ask your criminal defense attorney or public defender whether you’re eligible, how to request it, the potential conditions, and the consequences of violating those conditions. Even though house arrest instead of jail or prison may seem like a no-brainer, you should know what you’re getting into. An experienced criminal defense lawyer can help see that you get released with the least restrictive conditions the law allows under your circumstances.