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House arrest


House arrest, court-ordered confinement in one’s own home. The sentence is viewed as an important alternative to standard incarceration at various stages of the criminal justice process. It is employed by criminal justice systems around the world and often entails very diverse requirements. There are several forms of house arrest, depending on the severity of the requirements of the court order.

Curfew generally refers to restricting an offender to his home during specified times, usually during the evening hours. Under home confinement or home detention, the offender is confined to the home for most hours, with stated exceptions for school, work, religious services, medical or drug treatment, or food shopping. These exceptions are generally specified in advance and strictly enforced. Finally, home incarceration, perhaps the most severe form of house arrest, generally refers to cases in which the offender is required to remain in the home at all times, with rare exceptions such as medical treatment or court-ordered correctional therapy such as drug-abuse counseling. The latter two forms of house arrest are often enforced through electronic surveillance via a device placed on the offender’s ankle, thus enabling his or her presence or absence from the home to be monitored very closely. Each of these forms of house arrest can be imposed at almost any stage of the criminal justice system and is used for various purposes.


House arrest can be useful as a form of pretrial confinement for defendants who appear to be inappropriate candidates for being released on their own recognizance or who are unable to post bond. The primary goals of pretrial house arrest are to guarantee that the defendant shows up at trial, to ensure public safety, to reduce jail overcrowding, and to reserve jail space for the most dangerous or untrustworthy defendants. One major advantage of the use of home confinement at this stage is that people not yet found guilty are not subjected to incarceration with other, possibly more-serious, offenders. Alternatively, house arrest can be described as a form of punishment but one less punitive than confinement in jail or prison. Because of this premise, house arrest should be used only for offenders who would normally not be let out on bail or in cases where a very high bail is set but is reduced on the condition of house arrest. House arrest at this stage is particularly useful for juveniles, who are commonly detained for long periods of time prior to adjudication for minor offenses only to be released following adjudication and sentencing.

House arrest is also used as criminal sanction meted out by judges at sentencing. The purposes of house arrest at sentencing are to administer a reasonable punishment, protect public safety, reserve jail space for more-serious offenders, reduce the potential criminogenic effects of incarceration, and help rehabilitate the offender. The basic goal in this case is to provide a cost-effective alternative to incarceration. House arrest may cover the entire length of a sentence or only a part of it. For instance, in some jurisdictions a sentence is broken down into three parts: an offender is incarcerated for a period of time, then allowed to participate in a work-release program, and then graduated to home confinement. In general, there is agreement among both criminal justice professionals and the general public that house arrest is a reasonable sanction for certain low-risk offenders who seem likely to profit from not being exposed to other criminals and from maintaining employment and family ties. Research suggests that offenders experience the sanction as a punishment, although one less punitive than incarceration.

House arrest is also used at the tail end of the criminal justice system, as a form of early release and community reintegration. Again, the goals are to reduce jail and prison crowding and to act as a mechanism to help the offender readjust to life outside prison, with all the attendant pressures and enticements to reoffend.


A major concern about house arrest is whether it is cost-effective. The cost-effectiveness of house arrest is dependent on a number of conditions, including where in the trial process it is being used, how it is implemented, what types of offenders are deemed eligible, and whether they recidivate. The cost-effectiveness of house-arrest programs is a controversial issue that is often researched.

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At the front end of the system, for pretrial defendants, a limited use of house arrest is likely to be cost-effective as long as it is used for people who normally would not be released on their own recognizance or who cannot make bail. Likewise, at the sentencing stage, house arrest is likely to be cost-effective if used on lesser offenders who would normally be detained or on those who may have gotten probation but who need the extra formal controls to resist criminal temptations. At the tail end of the criminal justice system, house arrest is almost certainly cost-effective, because the costs of housing offenders and building new prisons is immense in comparison with the costs of monitoring offenders’ home confinement or curfew. Furthermore, the fact that offenders often are allowed to work enables them to support families, pay restitution, and even help pay for the equipment used to monitor them. One must also consider rates of recidivism and the safety of the public when determining cost-effectiveness.


An important aspect of house arrest is deciding who should be eligible. In general, violent offenders are not considered eligible for house arrest, and it is inappropriate to use house arrest for offenders such as drug dealers convicted for selling drugs out of their homes. With the exception of habitual traffic offenders and people convicted of having driven under the influence of alcohol, extensive prior records generally preclude the use of house arrest, at least at the sentencing stage. Other factors that are often taken into consideration are employability, history of substance abuse, and unstable living arrangements. The health status of the offender might also be taken into account; house arrest is sometimes used for people with terminal illnesses who pose minimal risks to the community and wish to die with dignity in their homes or with their families. House arrest is not a good option, however, if there are known offenders residing in or near the home or if the victim resides in the home. Careful screening and follow-up are necessary for the effective use of house arrest.

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