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Deinstitutional Incapacitation: Home Detention in Pre-Trial and Post-Conviction Contexts

NCJ Number
113025
Journal
Northern Kentucky Law Review Volume: 13 Issue: 3 Dated: (1987) Pages: 375-408
Author(s)
F L Rush
Date Published
1987
Length
34 pages
Annotation
Home detention, either pretrial or posttrial, offers an alternative to probation and incarceration by restricting individuals to their own home on a part-time or full-time basis.
Abstract
Most programs confine the offender to the home during nonworking hours. Enforcement of the confinement may involve intensive supervision by probation or police personnel or electronic monitoring. House arrest provides an intermediate sanction between incarceration and probation. Analyzed in terms of the deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation goals of punishment, home detention provides an appropriate sanction for offenders who might otherwise be incarcerated. It is an effective sanction for crimes of low to moderate seriousness, including some moderate violent offenses requiring a more forceful response than that provided by probation. Home detention programs also are cheaper and easier to administer than intensive supervision probation programs or prisons. In pretrial applications, home detention allows magistrates to release on bail defendants who would otherwise be subject to pretrial incarceration. Although additional data will have to be collected and evaluated before a more detailed appraisal of home detention can be attempted, it appears to provide both a pretrial alternative to incarceration and a posttrial sentencing option. 93 footnotes.