​The recently introduced Home Detention Bill aims to allow certain offenders sentenced to a term of imprisonment of up to 18 months to serve the sentence in their homes rather than in prison. This paper discusses the development of home detention in Australia and overseas, the advantages and problems of home detention, and the operation of the proposed New South Wales home detention scheme.

Home detention is "a program of confinement and supervision that restricts the defendant to his or her place of residence continuously or during specified hours, enforced by appropriate means of surveillance". The surveillance may be human contact with the offender during the hours of detention, or may be electronic, or a combination of the two. The New South Wales home detention scheme is intended to be a combination of human and electronic monitoring.