Home confinement requires that the juvenile remain at his or her own residence, with the exception of approved leave. Approved leave typically only consists of attending school or work, religious services, and court-ordered programming, or receiving medical services. Home confinement allows for minimal disruption in the juvenile's life during the pre-trial proceedings. Home confinement is typically monitored by a probation officer who will confirm youth are in their designated places with random checks and other methods. Home confinement is often paired with electronic monitoring (using an ankle bracelet) to a**ist the probation officer in ensuring the juvenile is complying with the conditions of the home confinement.
Electronic monitoring uses telemetry devices to verify that offenders are at specified locations. The devices, commonly used in conjunction with home confinement, a**ist probation officers in ensuring offenders are in compliance with home confinement requirements. Electronic monitoring systems may be either active or pa**ive, but both devices require the offender to have a home telephone landline or cellular phone. Active electronic monitoring devices emit signals verifying the offender's whereabouts. Pa**ive monitoring systems make random calls to the offender's home or specified location throughout the day and use voice verification devices to ensure the offender is there. Both pa**ive and active monitoring systems can emit signals to the probation officer if the offender enters a restricted zone, a method most commonly used to enforce orders of protection.
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) also can track offenders, providing probation officers and other authorities with the location of an individual at any time. If the offender strays from allowed zones, or into a restricted zone, authorities are immediately notified. Some jurisdictions have indicated that these systems are less easy to tamper with than other electronic monitoring systems. The introduction of GPS monitoring can be costly, which may prevent many jurisdictions from adopting the technique.Although detention centers are more often used pre-trial, youth detention centers also are used for short periods of detention as part of a sentence.
Juvenile detention facilities provide short- term secure confinement. Juvenile detention sentences may not exceed 30 days. Home confinement is typically used prior to trial in conjunction with electronic monitoring. However, youth may be sentenced to home confinement, which requires that the juvenile remain at his or her own residence, with the exception of approved leave. Home confinement is monitored by probation officers who use a variety of methods to confirm youth are in their designated places. Home confinement also may be used when a youth is awaiting a violation of probation or probation revocation hearing. Youth may be sentenced to attend treatment programs or counseling for drug and alcohol abuse, s** offenders, or for mental health or medical problems.
Treatment sentences may include stays in a residential facility. Oftentimes, sentences of treatment are conditions of probation or conditional release. However, some youth may receive a sentence of treatment alone. Juveniles may be adjudicated a ward of the state and remanded to the custody of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ), the state agency that operates Illinois' juvenile correctional facilities. Sentences to incarceration within a IDJJ facility are the most restrictive sentences and are reserved for more serious offenders and habitual offenders. Youth may only be committed to IDJJ if they are at least 13 years old, and they may remain in IDJJ custody until their 21st birthdays.