Conditional sentence

A conditional sentence is a term of imprisonment that the offender serves in the community rather than in jail, under conditions that commonly include house arrest or a curfew. It is available only where statutory criteria are met, including that the appropriate sentence is less than two years, that serving it in the community would not endanger the community, and that the offence is not one excluded from eligibility.

A conditional sentence is still a sentence of imprisonment: breach of conditions can result in the offender serving the remainder in custody. It differs from probation, which is a supervisory order rather than jail, and from a discharge, which avoids a conviction. For sentencing research, the questions are usually eligibility for the particular offence and how courts have weighed community safety and the sentencing objectives in comparable cases.