Crime with a 3 month sentence?

I'm going to cheat, just because it's easier. Hope you don't mind....The crimes at the link are punishable up to one year, depending on the severity of the crime. Obviously, just doing the minimum will get you the minimum sentence. If it helps...

Misdemeanors



FR

He would NOT be kept in jail waiting trial for a misdeameanor in any state I can think of - he'd be released, probably without bond, and told when to show up for the trial. To keep him in jail in AZ, you need a felony, AND you need the judge to have some reason to deny bail, or for him to be unable to come up with the bail.

No bail: risk of flight, heinous crime, risk of repeat behavior, repeat offender.

Now ... if he pisses off the judge by being rude in court, he can be held for contempt of court until he apologizes.

Why do you need him kept in jail? Maybe we can come up with a better way to keep him out of action.

Yes. That reporter who was in jail...remember her? I forget her name now. Anyway, wasn't she in jail for contempt?

1) can't go by proscribed sentences for crimes, ex B misdo good for 3 months, because crimes are listed by their max penalties and it is exceedingly rare to get a max penalty. Fo rex, avg DWI is an A misdo, good for 1 yr in jail and avg sentence is 3 days, usus served as less than 40 hrs- check in Fri pm, get out Sun AM.

2) plenty of places have 'good time', for ex, Mandatory One-third GT in AK. Don't be an idiot while you're in jail and one-third of the sentence comes off auto. Go in for 6 mos, know you'll only serve 4 if you're not a problem prisoner.

3) to offer reall suggestions, I'd need to know
A) the type of jurisidction (tiny town v. big city- so I'd know the community norms- for ex, some big city jails are so full it takes quite a lot to be hosted by the govt for 3 months)
B) whether you have any restrictions on type of crime, (plot OK w/ sex crime? drug crime?)
C) whether plot's ok w/ bad guy having priors (much easier to get a 3 month sentence if you've already done five 10 or 30 day stints for thefts and burglary)

First off let me mention one thing that can screw you up on terms. You go to prison if you are incarcerated for a year and a day or more. If it is less than that, you go to jail. Jails are run by counties and cities, prisons are usually run by the state. Ignore this if you're talking federal.

Here's a scenario that would work in most states for you. Your guy gets mad and destroys the crap out of some property, with damages that just barely get you into a felony. This is usually $1,000 so he could do $1,200 worth of damages. He's arrested and goes into court the next day.

The next day, when the prosecutor reads the description of the crime to the judge, your guy starts laughing. "Yeah, I destroyed it. And I would have destroyed the owner if I could have got my hands on him. Just wait until I get out of here."

Judge is not going to be happy. Judge has an ongoing threat. Judge decides cash only bail in the amount of $25,000. Not an unreasonable amount (you can set it a little bit above what he can get to make this work). He can't raise it. He sits in jail until trial.

However, before trial (which lets you set the date you want for the length here), your guy's attorney negotiates a plea agreement where the damages are reduced to $1,000, making this a misdemeanor, and is sentenced to time served. Very reasonable scenario.

I did this a lot with guys with previous records who couldn't get reasonable bail.

I'd talk to an attorney in the jurisdiction where your book is set to firm this up a bit more with local customs.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

mollyluna said:

I've lived in several states and I'd have to agree with Tsu, no states keep people for misdemeanors anymore. The jails are just too full. And, as jclark says, it's county jail, not prison. Although, in the past, there have been instances when dangerous felons have been remanded to prisons while awaiting trial. Dangerous being the key word there.

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Well, I have much experience in a county jail and I say that it IS possible for a misdemeanor case to keep a person incarcerated for three or four months.

If the person is listening to 'jailhouse' lawyers and decides not to waste the money posting bond and then gets sentenced to six months for whatever the crime was, it could be three or four months with good time.

However, as others have said, the question does really depend on jurisdiction. I could tell you about rural NE Nevada, I would be hard pressed to tell you about other places.

Rabe...

Rabe said:

Well, I have much experience in a county jail and I say that it IS possible for a misdemeanor case to keep a person incarcerated for three or four months.

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Rabe...

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Or, it could be for something as simple as failing to pay a fine. I was treated to four days at the county facility (not quite jail, not quite country club, not unlike prison) because I was pulled in for such a thing. I was a bartender, served a minor (They had a fake ID, but didn't when the cops raided the place) and was fined $500. I sat until a friend came up with the money to pay the fine. I could have sat for a long time (I think three months was mentioned) if I didn't have such nice friends.

Maybe they don't do that today (this was about 20 years ago) but it actually happened.

In Massachusetts that would pretty much be the maximum sentence for any crime except not paying taxes, in which case the death penalty applies.

if the boy is a jeuvenile he could go to a jeuvenile dentention center for 90 days vs going to an adult jail.