Introduction to Federal Home Confinement

Generally, home confinement is another form of community confinement available for people reaching the final 12 to 18 months of their federal prison term. During the ongoing pandemic, Congress and the federal government extended the federal home confinement program to people at risk for severe illness from Covid-19 under certain conditions. Home confinement (akin to house arrest) is also available for people during the pre-trial phase of their criminal case.

What Is Considered Home Confinement?

A person placed in home confinement is, as the term suggests, physically confined to their house wearing an electronic monitoring device or GPS. In some cases, the home confinement area can include the outdoors part of the house, but it generally refers to an interior structure.

When a person is in home confinement, all of their movements in and out of the house are strictly limited and closely supervised. They must adhere to a predetermined daily schedule and cannot leave home except with permission and only for approved reasons.

The parameters of allowed movement may differ if the person is on home confinement pre-trial, while their criminal case is still pending, versus post-conviction, after pleading guilty, going into the custody of the BOP, and returning to the community.

Federal Home Confinement Before Covid-19
For people serving a sentence in BOP custody, the federal home confinement process has existed for decades.

Specifically, all federal prisoners must undergo a review for placement in Residential Reentry Centers (“RRCs”) when they approach the end of their sentence under the Second Chance Act and First Step Act.

RRCs are part of the BOP, and they manage relationships with local halfway houses to provide housing and supervision to people from federal prisons returning to the community. In the ordinary course, the BOP is supposed to make every effort to review people with upcoming release dates for placement in an RRC at the earliest opportunity allowed by law.

The RRC manages a person’s gradual transition back home from federal prison. First, a person transitions from federal prison to a local halfway house for a period of time. Then they transition to home confinement, which should lead to their release from BOP custody altogether. Finally, most federal prison sentences have a court-imposed period of supervised release, managed by US Probation. That is the typical process for home confinement.

Federal Home Confinement In The Covid-19 Era:

As of December 2021, the BOP has transferred over 36,000 eligible inmates to home confinement following the instructions from the Attorney General on March 26, 2020, that the BOP prioritizes home confinement as an appropriate response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Moreover, people do not have to apply for a release to home confinement based on Covid-19, also known as the CARES Act release. Instead, a person’s case manager at the prison reviews all files to recommend those who meet the home confinement criteria. To that end, the BOP states that it has increased resources to review and make appropriate determinations as soon as possible. BOP’s review for suitable home confinement candidates is ongoing. However, an inmate can also be proactive and request to be referred to home confinement as long as they can provide a release plan to their case manager.

Home Confinement And House Arrest

As noted above, corrections experts define home confinement generally as “any judicially or administratively imposed a condition requiring a person to remain in their residence for all or any portion of the day.”

Thus, whenever people have a judicial or administrative condition to remain at home for any portion of their day or face the consequences, that can be considered home confinement.

House arrest is often used interchangeably with home confinement since a person is mandated to stay at home unless instructed otherwise in both scenarios. The difference is that house arrest is a more formally recognized alternative prison sentence doled out by a court as such. In contrast, home confinement is not a statutory sentence per se.

However, federal courts have broad discretion at sentencing to include a period of house arrest or home confinement when they deem it appropriate. No one should doubt that a federal judge can sentence people to home confinement or house arrest, given their broad sentencing powers.


House arrest is a serious matter. People might get house arrest when they cannot meet bail requirements, for example, or when the underlying crime allows a sentence of house arrest, among other cases. While house arrest allows people the privilege to remain at home with conditions instead of serving time in jail, failure to comply with house arrest exactly as instructed can quickly lead to jail or prison.