What Life Is Really Like Under House Arrest

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

By the end of her sentence in 2017, it's estimated she spent $16,450 for her monitoring. The National Institute of Justice said in a 2011 paper the average cost paid by offenders was $64 a month for the monitors.

Studies have shown electronic monitoring can have adverse effects. The same paper showed electronic monitors can deter employers from hiring those wearing them. Being on house arrest also means you don't get to talk to a lot of people. While we can Zoom with friends, some people on house arrest are not allowed to use computers or talk to former associates.

Hu Jia, a Chinese activist and a critic of the Communist Party, was placed under house arrest in 2011 after his release from jail. He faced not just a life of constant monitoring, but essentially total isolation from others. Hu writes in Foreign Policy that he couldn't choose who contacted him.

"I am under constant surveillance from the Defenders of Domestic Security, better known as Country Defenders, or Guobao. Guobao prevents my friends, foreign diplomats, journalists from international media outlets, and other dissidents or human rights supporters from visiting me," he explained.

While we're all forced to stay inside our homes these days, no one is constantly following our every movement, and no one restricts who we get to talk to. We can go to the grocery store or socially distance in a park and laugh with our friends. And although technology might be tracking us anyway, you should still be glad you're not really under house arrest.

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