House Arrest, SEC (Secure Electronic Monitoring), Ankle Bracelet Alternatives to Jail
Supervised Electronic Confinement (SEC), also known as SEC House Arrest, which involves the use of an Ankle Bracelet, can be an alternative to jail in Orange County.
What is SEC?
The SEC (Secure Electronic Confinement) program is a program used in Orange County Courts for defendants who would otherwise face jail. It is used by criminal defense attorneys in Orange County, our Orange County DUI Attorney, other private defense counsel, judges, Orange County Probation, and the Orange County jail, to avoid jail sentences for qualified individuals.
You can apply for Supervised Electronic Confinement SEC House Arrest using the Orange County form at this link. That form requires that you follow all of the rules below as part of the application:
- Your application must be completed in Black Ink.
- You must include a copy of a driver’s license, a Social Security Card, Birth Certificate (or Certificate of Naturalization);
- You must include on the form a hand-drawn diagram of your home (floor plan)
- Copies of the driver’s licenses for all adults living in the residence must be included.
- A copy of your home phone bill showing the telephone number and address must be submitted.
- Three recent paycheck stubs, or a letter from the employer indicating length of employment, work hours, and hourly pay;
- For those with a current Driver’s License, they will need proof of current auto registration & proof of auto insurance; and
- If someone else will provide transportation, the applicant must provide the other driver’s registration & insurance information.
Who is Approved for SEC?
Admittance into the SEC program is not a 100% guarantee. Quite often, when you are saying yes to SEC, you are saying yes to jail, and only being offered an opportunity to apply for SEC. Many clients will not be admitted into the SEC program because of their past convictions, probation violations, violent offenses, drug convictions, and theft convictions. There really does not seem to be any solid guarantees that a person will get approved for SEC, although the guidelines for exclusion are fairly well known, so if you are not one of the categories of people that are usually prevented from SEC, you would have a higher than average chance of being approved.
The process for an SEC application is quite extensive and begins with completing the comprehensive application mentioned above and submitting it to probation. This process, according to the Orange County probation department, and in the experience of our Orange County DUI Lawyer, takes about six weeks to get an answer.
Bypassing probation and having the judge directly on board with sentencing to house arrest is an option, as more providers of electronic home monitoring (known as Supervised Electronic Confinement (SEC) in Orange County) allow such credits without a court order. This is true with LCA Services and Diversified Monitoring Systems, which are the authorized providers for the SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring), GPS tracking, and drug patch monitoring systems in most of the southern California Counties.
Who is Not Approved for SEC?
SEC has denied persons for the following reasons, which are not a comprehensive listing:
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Anyone under age 21;
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Anyone who has non-removable body piercings
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Any violent crimes or a PC 148 (resisting arrest) on one’s record
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The words, or checkbox, “NO SEC” on the guilty plea form
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You live more than 50 miles from the jail
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Failures to appear of any kind
In our experience as Orange County DUI Attorneys, we have found that clients do not find out they are denied until the week they are to report for jail. This only gives the attorney and the client one or two days to drop everything and appeal the denial decision for SEC.
And yes, there is an appeal process for those who are denied. You can appeal the SEC decision if you request an appeal hearing after you are denied by the SEC. Or you can ask the judge for resentencing to have the judge substitute DMS and SCRAM monitoring for home confinement.
In order for this to happen, you must first be denied probation for the SEC program. Then you may request to use SCRAM, through one of the many Orange County SCRAM providers, or The MOST Program, or GPS as an alternative. By using SCRAM, the MOST Program, or GPS, the same products that are used in SEC are used to monitor you for home confinement. In some cases, it is actually less expensive compared to SEC.
What does SEC cost?
The cost is on a sliding scale based on the amount of supervision and the applicant’s income.
Where does one go to get SEC?
There are several providers in Orange County that contract with the County of Orange to provide SEC. Those include Diversified Monitoring, The Most Program, and others.
Our Orange County DUI attorneys have experience getting clients, especially those with second-time DUI cases, into the SEC program and avoiding all jail time. If you need our assistance and expertise in this regard, please contact our firm or call us at (949) 682-5316.