We here at The Infographics Show pride ourselves on educating you every day on everything from
science and technology to foreign affairs, and even just everyday things that you're
probably wondering about but never thought to ask.
Today we're going to be tackling another viewer question, Infographics fan Courtney asked
us, how does house arrest work?
If you've seen our previous video on the differences between prison and jail then you already know
that the US penal code is a bit of a mess of rules and regulations- not only are there
different jails, but there's different prisons too, and no clear way of knowing where you
might end up if you commit an offense.
Today though we'll be looking at what seems to be the lightest of these punishment options,
and what might land you a stint at home as opposed to a long stay in jail or prison.
So you've done the crime, and now it's time to do the time.
Except your time will be done all at home, but what kinds of crimes net you a home arrest,
or home confinement as it is legally known?
Well, the regulations for home confinement vary state by state, but generally only those
individuals who are considered low risk and nonviolent offenders are eligible for house
arrest.
That means that if you got caught for murdering and eating twenty four people, you have zero
chance of house arrest, but if you were caught for... we don't know, defacing a public statue?
Then you'd qualify for home confinement.
But only if you were a low risk offender.
What does that all mean exactly?
In all honesty, it's hard to be sure, because nobody is really clear on exactly what types
of crimes even qualify for house arrest in the first place.
Vandalizing a public statue could earn you a hefty fine in most places, but it could
also potentially land you under house arrest.
The same goes for a DUI that ends nonviolently.
In truth, earning an actual sentence of house arrest over jail is largely up to the judge,
and is the reason impartial judges with good... well, judgment... are so important.
Being sentenced to county jail is a mandatory requirement for house arrest though, and again
this is where things get rather discretional on the judge's part.
Many misdemeanours often only involve fines and/or community service and mandatory counseling,
but sometimes they can land you a stint in jail which would qualify for house arrest.
If you are sentenced to even a single day of jail, then you're eligible to serve that
day under house arrest instead.
The same goes if you're sentenced to twenty years in jail- although to be fair, any offense
with such a hefty sentence would automatically be a felony, and that's the real key here:
the indictment must be for a misdemeanor, not a felony.
But wait, wasn't famous scam artist Bernie Madoff sentenced to house arrest initially?
Well, yes, but also no.
Bernie Madoff, whom if you don't know was convicted of operating the largest Ponzi scheme
in the world and stealing almost $65 billion dollars, was actually sentenced to house arrest
along with a $20 million dollar bail in lieu of sitting in jail for the duration of his
trial.
That is yet another way to earn yourself house arrest, but even then only if you are considered
a low flight risk and haven't committed a violent criminal act.
In that case you can post bail and sit at home for the duration of your trial rather
than wait it out in jail- although it really helps if you're filthy rich of course.
Another key qualifier for house arrest is having your residence be in or very near to
the county in which you were actually sentenced, so if you got sentenced to three months of
house arrest in Tucson, Arizona, you can't just jet off to your private mansion in Malibu
with a private beach and choose to serve your sentence there.
This actually is pretty common sense policy, because if we were rich enough and got sentenced
to house arrest, we'd just immediately buy a home on the shore of Hawaii somewhere- or
buy an entire water park and declare it our legal residence.
Along with your residence being in or near the county you were sentenced in, your home
must also have a valid telephone through which your parole officer and other court officials
can contact you.
From our research it seems that the rules on this vary state by state, with some states
accepting a cell phone and others mandating that you have a physical landline available
inside your residence.
For the younger members of our audience, a land line used to be a communications device
similar to a cell phone, but was physically connected to a global network of cables and
allowed people to speak via voice communications with other people.
It had no games, no texting, and zero apps, and if you used it at the same time that you
tried to use the internet it would crash the internet.
Lastly, to qualify for house arrest you have to be able to pay some or all of the cost
of monitoring your compliance.
While house arrest is far cheaper for the government than keeping you locked up in jail,
it still costs about $6,000 a year.
This cost includes the price of the monitoring unit which you must wear around your ankle
and is GPS enabled, and the cost of that monitoring itself.
Once more states differ, with some states having an up-front fee of around $14 a day,
and other states adjusting the daily fee on a sliding scale versus your income.
In the end, it's preferable to the government if you can stay locked up at home instead
of in a jail facility as it's cheaper, and so most courts are willing to work with you
on the financial side.
So now that we know how to get yourself house arrest, how does it work exactly?
Well, you've probably seen it portrayed in the movies, and in most cases the depiction
is completely wrong.
House arrest sounds like, well you being arrested to your house, but in reality many exceptions
can be made for you to actually leave your residence.
For example, work exemptions are common for people with jobs, and it makes more sense
for the government to let you keep working and be a productive member of society than
not.
The same goes for those attending school, and exemptions based around your school schedule
are also possible.
There can even be exemptions for court-appointed counseling events, and at times for religious
events- again, the specific terms of your house arrest are largely in the hands of your
sentencing judge.
Whatever the exceptions though, your schedule is very closely monitored, and if you are
not physically inside your residence within the allowed time, then you are considered
to be in violation of your house arrest and can be sent to real jail.
Thanks to GPS technology the court can be aware of you even just sneaking to the end
of the block for a quick chat with your friends, or to pick up a soda from the corner store,
and it has a zero tolerance policy for offences.
That same GPS technology though also lets the court see that you were stuck in traffic,
and thanks to big data it can be easy to pull up traffic patterns and realize that the reason
you were an hour late getting home isn't because you were willfully violating your house arrest,
but because of bad traffic.
But what about feeding yourself and taking care of other vital necessities?
Well, once more the responsibility of physically taking care of yourself falls on you, rather
than the state, which alleviates a large amount of the cost of the state holding you.
This means that if you aren't able to meet your own basic daily needs, then you will
not qualify for house arrest.
It's helpful if you have a job you can be exempted to go work at, or have supportive
friends or family nearby or living with you that can cover the cost of your food for the
duration of your sentence.
This additional support also extends into actually getting that food into the house
in the first place, and is the reason why so many people who live alone don't qualify
for house arrest.
Assigning you someone to physically bring you food and other necessities would completely
destroy the one advantage of house arrest- the fact that it saves the court money- and
so therefore how you feed yourself and buy new toilet paper is completely on you.
The ability to not be able to get these things for yourself or with the assistance of others
will also disqualify you from house arrest.
Luckily for you amazon delivers everything you could possibly need straight to your door,
and uber eats and doordash can bring you food with the press of a button.
While at home you can enjoy pretty much the same freedoms you always did, and only in
extremely rare and specific circumstances will you be barred from the internet or receiving
any visitors- although judges can enforce as a condition of your sentence that you do
not associate with specific individuals for the duration of your house arrest.
However this works largely on the honor system and on investigations done by parole officers,
and while you likely wouldn't get caught, it's probably best not to push your luck and
earn yourself a trip to the real big house.
With all these advantages house arrest can seem like a pretty attractive option, but
it does come with one pretty glaring downside: the fact that time served on house arrest
will not qualify for good behavior and thus earn a reduction in your sentence.
Typically in jail you can earn a 1 for 1 day reduction on your sentence for good behavior,
meaning that if you are cooperative, polite, and don't cause any trouble, you can get one
day knocked off your sentence for every one day served with good behavior.
Unfortunately house arrest is exempt from this rule, so while it may be more comfortable
to sit at home than in jail, you'll be stuck inside the house for much longer than if you
were a model prisoner in county jail.
Would you rather get sentenced to house arrest or a real jail?
Got another question only The Infographics Show can answer?
Email us or let us know in the comments!
And if you enjoyed this video check out our challenge episode, I didn't leave home for
30 days to see what a real house arrest might look like!