There are times when the Court will determine that it is in the best interest of the justice that an individual can only be released to the community with special conditions that will increase the likelihood that the offender will either appear for their future hearings or decrease the potential danger to the community. As indicated in the conditions outlined elsewhere in the Pretrial Unit section of this site,the Court may impose one of those alternatives of home incarceration, home detention or curfew. Below is a more detailed description of those alternatives.

What is home confinement, what does it entail, and when is it available as a sentencing alternative?

Home confinement is an alternative to incarceration in certain cases where an offender must remain at his or her residence during specified hours. The three forms of home confinement are: 1.) curfew, under which the offender is restricted during certain specified hours, usually at night; 2.) home detention, under which the offender remains at home at all times except for approved leave for employment, education, medical attention, or correctional treatment; and, 3.) home incarceration, under which the offender is restricted to his or her residence at all times except for approved leave for religious or medical reasons. Probation officers monitor this special condition by telephone contacts, unannounced home contacts, and/or electronic signaling devices.

In all such cases, the U.S. Probation Office in this District prefers to monitor such special conditions via electronic monitoring. For such a program to be feasible, the offender must: have a telephone line available, as well as a telephone hookup, RJ-11 jack, an accessible electrical outlet; remove party line, call waiting, call forwarding, 3-way dialing, voice mail, call block, and caller ID services; and, disconnect any answering machine, computer modem/fax machine, cordless phone, or related devices.

The Court may also require that the offender may only be released to an in-patient treatment program and only upon successful completion of this program will the Court consider general or less restrictive release conditions.

For information regarding the Pretrial Diversion Program please refer to that page within this section of the site.