KEY POINTS:
Serious violent, sex and drug offenders could be kept behind bars to protect the public, rather than being allowed home detention.
Corrections Minister Judith Collins is ordering a far-reaching review of home detention.
"Public safety is our No 1 priority," she said.
Home detention with electronic monitoring could be an effective tool to steer low-risk offenders away from prison, but Collins expressed concern it had become an option for too many serious offenders - presenting a risk to the community.
"The previous government put lowering the prison population ahead of public safety," Collins said.
She was alarmed to learn that in 2006/07 more than 50 per cent of offenders on home detention had convictions for violent, sexual or drug offences, compared with 39 per cent in 2001/02.
University of Canterbury criminologist Greg Newbold said home detention was a good alternative for the courts to use when they did not want to send someone to jail, and instead give an offender "something to think about".
"People on home detention really hate it. They get cabin fever," he said.
But there were downsides: people could be visited by people who might assist them to reoffend.
Newbold said if it was given improperly, the Crown and defence had the right to get a decision reviewed by appeal.
