9.8. House Arrest 
DAVID CARTER 
House arrest is where an individual is remanded to stay home for confinement, in order to serve a 
punishment, in lieu of jail or prison. There are built-in provisions where individuals are permitted to attend 
places of worship, places of employment, and places for food. Otherwise, individuals are expected to be 
home. It is difficult to assess how many are on house arrest at any given time, as these are often short stents 
given during early stages of probation. 
House Arrest Success 
As mentioned above, house arrest is often joined with electronic monitoring(EM). Many of the studies 
incorporate both sanctions at the same time. Given the difficulty in separating EM from house arrest 
in studies, less is known about the independent effects of house arrest. However, it is certainly a cost 
saving mechanism, over other forms of sanctions. There is a relatively no-cost to low-cost for house arrest, 
not coupled with electronic monitoring, especially when comparing house arrest to intensive supervised 
probation. In all, house arrest would probably best serve individuals with low criminogenic risks and needs. 
However, it is also argued that those individuals need little sanctions already, in order to be successful. Thus, 
the utility of house arrest is debatable. 
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