Community Control in Florida: Conditions, Costs, and Violations

Community control in Florida is the state’s most restrictive form of community supervision, often called house arrest. A judge imposes it instead of prison when standard probation would be too lenient. You stay confined to an approved residence, wear a GPS monitor, and answer to an officer who can show up unannounced any day of the week. The term is capped at two years or the maximum prison sentence for the offense, whichever is shorter.¹

How It Differs From Regular Probation

Florida Statute 948.001 defines community control as intensive, supervised custody in the community, with surveillance that continues through weekends and holidays.¹ Your home becomes the facility. Your officer, who carries a caseload capped at 30 people (roughly a third of a standard probation officer’s load), functions as the guard.²

Standard probation usually means a check-in once or twice a month. Community control locks down nearly every hour of your day. You stay at your approved residence unless you have documented permission to be elsewhere, and leaving without that permission is treated as an escape.

Who Gets Placed on Community Control

Under Section 948.01, a judge can place a felony defendant on community control instead of sending them to a correctional facility when the offense or criminal history makes regular probation inadequate.¹ Section 948.10 identifies the target population:²

People who violated the terms of standard probation, through either a technical violation or a new offense.
People who broke the terms of parole or conditional release.
Felony offenders whose criminal background or offense severity makes regular probation unsuitable.

Capital felonies are excluded. A judge cannot impose community control for an offense punishable by death.¹

How Long You’ll Be on It

Community control cannot last longer than the prison term the court could have imposed, and it cannot exceed two years, whichever limit is shorter.¹ If your third-degree felony carries up to five years, the ceiling is two. If the offense carries 18 months, that’s your ceiling.

Courts frequently combine community control with other penalties. Section 948.012 lets a judge impose a split sentence pairing jail or prison time with community control that starts after release, or probation followed by community control.³ The combined sentence cannot exceed the statutory maximum for the offense.

Early Termination Isn’t an Option

This catches people off guard. Florida’s early-termination rules for probation do not apply to community control. Section 948.04 excludes community control from the mandatory early-termination and administrative-probation-conversion provisions that probationers can use after completing half their term.⁴ If a court later moves you from community control to probation, you must complete half the new probation term before becoming eligible, with no credit for the community control time already served.

The Conditions You Live Under

The sentencing judge sets conditions individually, but Section 948.101 treats several as automatic, meaning the judge does not have to announce them for them to apply:¹

Confinement to your approved residence during all hours when you are not at an approved activity like work or ordered public service. This is not a nighttime curfew. It restricts you around the clock.
A set contact schedule with your community control officer, including unannounced visits.
Mandatory public service hours if the court orders them.
Electronic monitoring, which the Department of Corrections can require.
All standard probation conditions from Section 948.03, which include maintaining employment, submitting to drug testing, not possessing firearms, paying restitution, and paying supervision fees.

The court can add any further conditions it considers appropriate and can modify them at any time during supervision. If the court orders jail as a condition of community control, that incarceration is capped at 364 days and must be served in a county facility, a probation and restitution center, or an approved residential treatment facility.¹ For sex offenses, out-of-state residence requires approval from the receiving state’s interstate compact authority.

Monitoring and Officer Contact

You will provide a detailed weekly schedule listing every approved activity and movement. Your officer can appear at your home or workplace without warning to verify you are where you are supposed to be.

Most people on community control wear a GPS ankle monitor that tracks location continuously. The monitoring may be handled by a private vendor contracted by the Department of Corrections. Any deviation from your approved locations or schedule generates an alert. Keeping the device charged is your responsibility, and a dead battery or tampered device is treated the same as leaving your approved area without permission.

What It Costs

Serving your sentence at home is not free. Under Section 948.09, you pay a monthly supervision fee as a condition of your placement. The court sets the amount, which cannot exceed the actual daily cost of your supervision multiplied by the days in the month.⁵ Courts commonly set this near $50 per month, though it varies by circuit.

If you cannot afford the fee, the Department of Corrections can grant a full or partial exemption. Qualifying reasons include being unable to find or maintain work despite diligent effort, being enrolled in school or vocational training, having a physical or mental condition that prevents employment, being too old to work, or supporting dependents when payment would create undue hardship.⁵ Nonpayment can be grounds for revocation, but the court must first consider your ability to pay.

Beyond the supervision fee, you may owe restitution, court costs, and fees for the electronic monitoring equipment. If you fall behind, raise it with your officer and the court early rather than giving the state grounds for a violation.

What Happens If You Violate

Violations fall into two categories, and the path forward depends on which one yours is. Technical violations, such as missing curfew or failing a drug test, may be handled through a streamlined alternative sanctioning program. More serious violations, including new criminal offenses, go through a formal court hearing where the judge can revoke community control entirely.

Technical Violations

Every judicial circuit in Florida operates an alternative sanctioning program. When your officer identifies a technical violation, meaning anything that is not a new felony, misdemeanor, or criminal traffic offense, the officer must determine whether you qualify for the program before filing a formal violation.⁶

For someone on community control, even a first technical violation is classified as a moderate-risk violation, one step above the low-risk category used for standard probationers.⁷ For a first moderate-risk violation, the officer can propose sanctions such as:

Up to 21 days in county jail
A curfew lasting up to 90 days
House arrest for up to 90 days
Electronic monitoring
Counseling or treatment
Community service hours

Any proposed sanction goes to the court for approval before it takes effect. If you accept the sanction, the violation is handled without a formal hearing. If you reject it, or if you are ineligible, the officer files a formal affidavit of violation and the case goes before a judge.

Formal Violation Hearings

When the alternative program does not apply, Section 948.06 lets any law enforcement officer or your community control officer arrest you without a warrant if there are reasonable grounds to believe you have violated a material condition.⁶ A court can also issue an arrest warrant based on a sworn affidavit.

Whether you get bail pending the hearing depends on the alleged violation and your record. The general rule is that the court may release you with or without bail, or hold you in custody.⁶ Release is off the table entirely if you are:

A violent felony offender of special concern as defined in the statute
On felony community control and arrested for a qualifying offense
A habitual violent felony offender, three-time violent felony offender, or sexual predator arrested for a qualifying offense

At the hearing, you appear before the original sentencing judge. If you admit the violation, the judge can immediately revoke, modify, or continue your community control. If you deny it, the state must prove the violation by a preponderance of the evidence, a lower bar than beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge’s options range from modifying your conditions or extending the term to revoking community control and imposing the original prison sentence.⁶

One timing point: once an affidavit of violation is filed and a warrant issued, your supervision clock stops running until the court rules. Time spent waiting for the hearing does not count toward completing your term.

Transferring Supervision to Another State

You do not have a legal right to move your supervision to another state. Transfers go through the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision and are treated as a privilege.⁸

A mandatory transfer, which the receiving state must accept, requires all of the following: Florida approves the request, you have more than 90 days of supervision remaining, you are in substantial compliance with your conditions, and you have a qualifying connection to the receiving state such as residency, family willing to support your plan, or employment lined up.⁹ If you do not meet the mandatory criteria, a discretionary transfer is possible if both states agree, but approval is far less certain.

The receiving state takes over day-to-day supervision but applies its own standards. Community control as Florida defines it may not exist there, which can change how your conditions actually look after the transfer. Application fees vary by state and commonly range from $75 to $200.

1
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 948 – Probation and Community Control
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 948.10 – Community Control Programs; Home Confinement
3
Florida Senate. Florida Code 948.012 – Split Sentence of Probation or Community Control
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 948.04 – Period of Probation; Early Termination
5
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 948.09 – Payment for Cost of Supervision
6
Justia Law. Florida Code 948.06 – Violation of Probation or Community Control
7
Florida Senate. Florida Code 948.06 – Violation of Probation or Community Control
8
Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision. Starting the Transfer Process
9
Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision. Rule 3.101 – Mandatory Transfer of Supervision