The 250th person started home detention this week, Minister of Corrections Matt Robson announced today.

The Department of Corrections started the home detention programme on 1 October last year. Inmates are released to serve out the remainder of their sentence at home under electronic monitoring and intensive supervision from a probation officer.

Ninety-two percent of those serving their sentences on home detention are on rehabilitation programmes and approximately one third are in employment.

"International evaluations of home detention show that where electronic monitoring is used hand-in-hand with rehabilitative programmes and supervision there is a reduction in re-offending," Matt Robson says.

“It is still to early to say whether the programme will have those results here but we are confident that the effects will be positive.

“It is encouraging that so many of these inmates are in rehabilitation programmes and many are in employment as well."

The eligibility criteria for home detention was very strict, he added. Only detainees who have been assessed as presenting minimal risk to the community and have shown a desire to address the causes of their offending are released on to home detention. The offences committed by offenders eligible for home detention include driving offences, drug-related offences, property crimes and fraud.

Home detention will be extended from 1 July. Currently the programme runs in the main centres but from 1 July the Department will be gradually extending into smaller centres and more widely in the main centres.

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