Alternatives to Jail: 5 Advantages to Home Confinement Over Jail

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alternatives to jail

Each year, over 10 million Americans get arrested. While some do not get convicted, it still leaves a large number of people to pay retribution. 

Fortunately, courts offer alternatives to jail for a number of crimes. If you need to pay for a crime with your time, then home confinement offers a better option than getting put behind bars.

Read on to learn more about home confinement and its five advantages.

What Is Home Confinement?

Home confinement, also known as house arrest, offers an alternative to putting a person in jail. Instead, they stay confined to their own home.

To prevent a person from sneaking out, they wear an ankle monitor set to the radius of their home through a GPS system, and sometimes even into the yard. If they step outside of this area, the device will vibrate and it will notify the probation or parole officer assigned to you.

Trying to tamper with the device or attempting to remove it typically results in immediate arrest. The convicted person must wear it at all times during their sentence.

Benefits of Home Confinement

Going on home confinement may seem like a drag. But consider your alternative. If you must serve time, then this is the best way to do it, and here’s why.

1. Freedom

Being locked in anywhere does not sound very free. But, at home, you can make your own schedule and do what you want when you want within the parameters of your home.

In prison, they create your entire schedule, leaving very little room for choice. They wake you up, tell you when to eat, shower, exercise, etc.

On house arrest, you can stay up late watching a movie or sleep in when you feel tired. We take these small freedoms for granted when somebody on the other side yearns for them.

2. Comfort

Living behind bars not only takes away basic freedoms. It also devoids you of your home comforts.

In jail or prison, you get the basics. They offer a uniform, a pillow, sheets, a blanket, and other basic items. 

Many items, like toothpaste and shampoo, you need a commissary to purchase. At home, you get your comfy blankets, bed, and favorite chair along with all of the products you enjoy on a daily basis.

On home confinement, you also get privacy. Inmates do not get this luxury as many people live in the same space.

Some prisons may offer shower stalls, but many provide shower rooms and a toilet in the same cell as your roommate. You can try to find alone time, but it does not always happen when you need it to.

Plus, you always know that somebody may walk in. In the comfort of your home, you can lock the door, take your time, and enjoy as much hot water as you would like.

3. Maintaining Relationships

One of the absolute worst aspects of going away is losing contact with your family and friends. Many relationships end up damaged or completely destroyed.

House arrest, unless otherwise mentioned, allows you to keep the people you love a regular part of your life. You cannot go places with them, but they can come to spend time with you in a comfortable setting whenever you decide.

This not only makes it easier on the convicted party. It also helps the people who love them.

When people serve time for crimes they commit, often their spouses and children end up paying greatly. They live with the stigma of it and miss out on years of their relationship.

It leaves one parent to raise the child alone. And the kids, a most innocent party, grow up without the love and guidance of that parent.

House arrest allows you to live with your spouse and your children. You get to help around the house, spend time with the children, and keep your family together.

4. Keep Your Career

Do you work a job you love or hold a career that you built? Serving time means most likely losing your position.

An employer holds no obligation to rehire you after you serve your sentence. But, prison alternatives may allow you to keep your career without missing a beat.

Sometimes the judge will allow you to go to and from specific places at certain times, which they monitor with the GPS tracker. This means that you may get the opportunity to keep your regular job without changing anything.

If your judge does not allow you to leave the home for work, you still may get to keep your position after all. You can’t work remotely in jail, but you can from home.

You can ask your employer if they can allow you to do everything from home, If your current position requires you onsite, then you can talk with them about creating a remote position that will benefit the company as well.

5. Health

Research reveals that prisoners have a higher morbidity rate than the general population. A number of factors contribute to this ranging from increased daily stress to living in close quarters with others.

In a facility, you live in close contact with people, many of whom carry transmittable diseases. You may also find these conditions less than sanitary.

Though you will always get fed in jail, you may not always want to eat the food. This weight loss can lead to lower immunity.

At home, you do not need to worry about people getting sick and spreading it throughout the community. You can keep your quarters clean and enjoy nutritious meals at any time.

If you do get sick, you can rest better at home to get well quicker. Plus, without living in a high-stress environment, you run less risk of developing high blood pressure. 

Discuss Alternatives to Jail

If you face a conviction, do not simply take a jail sentence. Discuss the possibility of alternatives to jail with your lawyer. The judge may see this as more beneficial, especially if you care for your own family at home.

We provide high-quality monitors so that people get the opportunity to serve their time outside of jail. Read more about us on our website.

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