This article discusses the cost advantages of home confinement and analyzes legal issues which have been raised regarding this sentencing option. Practical matters also are addressed, including criteria for selecting offenders to participate in home confinement, the appropriate duration for home confinement, and requirements for staffing home confinement programs. The author concludes that a strong commitment must be made to programs designed to develop meaningful strategies to combat the problems of prison overcrowding. To accomplish this objective, community correctional agencies must be adequately staffed, funded, and provided with state-of-the-art equipment and technological assistance. Innovative correctional programming requires extremely careful screening of participants, adequate resource allocation, sophisticated program design, and a total willingness to withstand adverse media exposure and political pressure. Further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of home confinement, including a closer review of its purported cost- effectiveness. Notes