Conditional sentence order

Also known as house arrest, this is similar to jail, only it is served at the offender’s home. It is normally given to people charged with non-violent crimes that are sufficiently serious to warrant incarceration.

These types of sentence can last from a few weeks or less to several months. A conditional sentence cannot be given for more than two years and, like a jail sentence, will not be longer than six months for summary offences. So if someone has been placed under house arrest for more than six months, it means they’ve been convicted of an indictable offence.

The terms of a conditional sentence order are normally very strict. Individuals serving this type of sentence may be required to remain at home at all times, except when they are in court. In other cases, they may be allowed to go to work or school or to attend to other personal business.

House arrest is legally the same as being in jail, so if someone under house arrest leaves their home when they’re not allowed to, they can be charged with being unlawfully at large, which can carry a serious penalty. Someone who violates a conditional sentence order may be required to serve the remainder of the sentence in jail.

People are often sentenced to probation in addition to a conditional sentence order. As with a jail sentence, the probation will begin on the day that conditional sentence order ends. So someone sentenced to six months house arrest and six months probation will have a sentence that lasts for 12 months.