Being sentenced to house arrest is a likely outcome of being charged with a crime as a first-time offender. The judge will hope that your sentence of house arrest — which is harsh to some degree, but lenient to another — will allow you to have remorse for your actions and make a commitment that you won't run afoul of the law again. While you may not have to pay a fine in conjunction with your sentence of house arrest, you shouldn't expect that this punishment won't cost you in any way. Here are some costs that you may incur while under house arrest.

Ankle Monitor

In order to ensure that you comply with the terms of your house arrest, the court will commonly require you to wear an electronic ankle monitor. This is a device that tracks your location and logs a record any time you're off your property. Of course, there's the cost of the device itself and the electronic monitoring of it, and this is a cost that you'll likely incur. Fortunately, you may view this as a small cost of being sentenced to a largely lenient sentence, and your criminal defense attorney will likely encourage you to feel this way.

Alcohol Monitor

If alcohol was involved in your arrest — for example, a charge of driving under the influence or perhaps an assault that involved alcohol — one of the conditions that you'll likely face while under house arrest is that you must stay away from alcohol. You can promise the court that you won't drink, but the judge will want to be sure that you stay true to your word. To this end, he or she will likely require you to wear an alcohol monitor, which is a bracelet that detects the presence of alcohol in your sweat. You'll often need to pay for this device, too.

Lost Wages

One of the fortunate things about being sentenced to house arrest is that you'll be able to leave your home to go to work. However, depending on how much you work, there's a possibility that the judge won't give you permission to be out of the house too much. As such, you may lose out on some of your shifts every week, which will result in lost wages — which is another type of cost associated with house arrest. Fortunately, your criminal defense lawyer will petition the court to allow you to work as much as possible, which may limit such costs.

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