House Arrest | Law - Encyclopedia Britannica

Applications

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.