What is community control in Florida?
A form of intensive, supervised custody served in the community instead of in jail, ordered by a court and defined in chapter 948 of the Florida Statutes.
Section 948.001(3), Florida Statutes, defines community control as a form of intensive, supervised custody in the community, including surveillance on weekends and holidays, administered by officers with restricted caseloads. It is an individualized program in which the freedom of an offender is restricted within the community, the home, or a noninstitutional residential placement, and specific sanctions are imposed and enforced.
Two things follow from that definition. It is custody, not merely supervision. And it is individualized — the restrictions are written for the person, not taken off a standard list.
How is it different from probation?
Probation is supervision. Community control is custody served at home. Florida law defines them separately.
Section 948.001(8) defines probation as a form of community supervision requiring specified contacts with probation officers, together with other terms and conditions. The defining word is supervision.
Community control is defined as intensive, supervised custody, with surveillance on weekends and holidays and officers carrying restricted caseloads.
In practice community control is the more restrictive of the two: confinement to an approved residence except for authorized activity, closer contact with the supervising officer, and much smaller caseloads so that the contact is real.
Chapter 948 of the Florida Statutes is titled Probation and Community Control. The two sit side by side in the same chapter because they are two different things.
What are the rules?
The court sets them, case by case. Section 948.101 says so in its opening line.
Section 948.101(1), Florida Statutes, provides that the court shall determine the terms and conditions of community control, and requires intensive supervision and surveillance. The conditions it lists as standard are:
- specified contact with the parole and probation officer
- confinement to an agreed-upon residence during hours away from employment and public service activities
- mandatory public service
- supervision by the Department of Corrections by means of an electronic monitoring device or system
- the standard conditions of probation set out in section 948.03
That list is not exhaustive. The statute expressly allows a court to add any other terms it considers proper, and to rescind or modify conditions at any time.
None of that tells you what your own conditions are. Your conditions are the ones written in your order. Read it, and ask your attorney or your supervising officer about anything in it you are unsure of.
What role does GPS monitoring play?
It verifies confinement terms a court has already set. It records location against permitted and prohibited areas and reports what it records.
Electronic monitoring appears in section 948.101(1)(d) as one of the standard conditions a court may impose. The statute describes that condition as supervision by the Department of Corrections by means of an electronic monitoring device or system.
That wording matters, and this page will not blur it. Where a court imposes electronic monitoring as a condition of community control under that paragraph, the supervising agency is the Department of Corrections. A private monitoring provider is not the Department of Corrections and does not stand in for it.
Private monitoring is a separate pathway. It arises where a court has ordered home detention and a jail, probation, or sheriff's department program is unavailable or has declined, and where the court approves a private arrangement. That route is described on the Alternative Sentencing page.
Whichever pathway applies, the technology does the same job. Permitted and prohibited areas are programmed as zones, location is checked against them, and what the device records is reported. The provider applies the restrictions it is given. It does not set them, and it does not decide what a violation leads to. How GPS ankle monitoring works explains the mechanics, and Living with a GPS monitor covers daily life on one.
Frequently asked questions
Is community control the same as house arrest?
In everyday speech, yes — house arrest is what most people call it. Community control is the term Florida law uses, and it is the term that will appear on your paperwork. Confinement to an agreed-upon residence is one of the standard conditions listed in section 948.101.
Is community control the same as probation?
No. Florida law defines them separately. Probation is community supervision requiring specified contacts with a probation officer. Community control is intensive, supervised custody in the community, with surveillance on weekends and holidays and officers carrying restricted caseloads. Community control is the more restrictive of the two.
Can you work while on community control?
The statute contemplates it. The standard confinement condition applies to hours away from employment and public service activities, so employment is built into how that condition is written. What your own order permits is set by the court.
Does community control always involve an ankle monitor?
No. Electronic monitoring is one of the conditions a court may impose, not one it must impose. Section 948.101(1) lists conditions the court may require; it does not require all of them in every case.
What happens if someone violates community control?
The violation is reported to the supervising officer and to the court. What follows is for the court to decide. Nothing on this page predicts an outcome, and no monitoring provider has any part in that decision.