The home detention solution | RNZ – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

Hiding offenders away with electronic bracelets in their homes isn’t the easy sentence many think, in spite of a recent case in Auckland that went badly wrong. 

Matu Reid was serving a sentence of home detention when he fatally shot two workers at a construction site on Auckland’s Queen Street.
Photo: RNZ / Ziming Li

The spotlight’s been on home detention since the Auckland CBD shootings.

Questions raised from the tragedy include: why was a man with a record of violence not in jail? How did Matu Reid get home detention when his list of crimes was long and included strangling his partner?

Today on The Detail we ask if home detention is the easy option – is it sitting around on the couch, watching TV and ordering delivery food?

“I imagine if I was on home detention that’s what I’d be doing,” says criminal defence lawyer John Munro.

But he says it’s not really that relaxed – and likens it to a long Covid lockdown without the walks.

Covid’s restrictions were “very difficult for a lot of people, including myself, and home detention can be up to 12 months,” he tells The Detail.

“But you don’t get to go out, necessarily – whereas at least with Covid you could go out for a walk and get some outside time, get some fresh air.” 

An electronic ankle bracelet keeps track of the detainee’s whereabouts. Conditions differ case-by-case – they may not have internet, might have exceptions to go to the supermarket, and might be told they can’t see certain…