Home detention in a DUI conviction

 

Home detention or House arrest is one of the many possible outcomes arising out of a DUI conviction, it is a confinement by which the court makes sure that the offender remains home and stays off the road as much as possible specially in the evenings or at night time. It has been observed that most drunk driving incidents happen in the evening or at nighttime, so home detention pretty much takes care of that.

 

During the course of home detention the violator is allowed to minimal driving which is pre determined by the court based on the circumstances of each individual case. Depending on your need the court may allow you to attend school, go to work or even visit a doctor.

 

Home detention or jail time

 

Home detention is an alternate to jail time which favors both the government and the offender, its favors the government in terms of reduced costs and secondly by the way of keeping the numbers down in the already overcrowded jails. As for the defendant it’s a blessing, you not only get to avoid being behind the bars in addition you may get the chance to avail other privileges like attending school or work.

 

House detention may be a great alternative to jail time but you also have to take into consideration the cost that have to be borne by you for monitoring gadgets and of monitoring authority.

 

Second very important aspect of the comparison of jail time and house detention is the time period, it is a known fact that the duration of house detention can be relatively longer in comparison to jail time, in some instances a ratio of up to 1:3 has been found in the two, that means that for every one day of actual jail time you could end up in getting a three day home detention.

 

How the system works

 

Generally there are two kinds of home detention although the use and availability of both may vary from state to state.

 

1. Home monitoring

2. Electronic home monitoring

 

Home monitoring – is the system which tracks or confirms the presence of the detainee at the assigned premises and pre determined locations during different hours of the day.

 

You may be required to make or attend calls from your home confirming of your presence in home, or you may be required to call from work in case you are allowed to go to work. The use of voice recognition systems and GPS ensure the reliability of the monitoring system.

 

The court can also assign someone to randomly check in on you to confirm that you are complying with the schedule of home detention. You may also be required to give in random alcohol breath tests.

 

Electronic Home Monitoring – is also a system which tracks the presence of a detainee at the court assigned premises, it relies on computerized electronic gadgets like tracking devices to be worn on the ankle or the wrist. The tracking devices have to be worn 24/7 throughout the tenure of the home arrest sentence.

 

Although these tracking devices are small enough to be concealed by your clothing but are very sensitive to tampering or any attempt of removal. These tracking devices (transmitters) are wirelessly connected to a base device which is kept at your home, the base device is connected to the computer of the monitoring office. So if at a time when you are supposed to be at home and you are not, the base unit does not get a signal from the tracking unit worn by you it sends the info to the monitoring office.

 

The schedule of the home detention is fed to the computers in the monitoring office and reports of all non complied instances, needless to say that if you don’t comply with your house arrest pre requisites that would only result in aggravated penalties.