

Pre-served prison sentence - jostmey
http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/20320674-418/time-stands-still-in-cook-county-jail-for-some-inmates.html

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Everlag
52k per year for an inmate to be incarcerated? That is just room and board?

What?

How can that work? Assuming you give the inmates decent food, you aren't
paying off the compound, and you aren't making the guards rich, where in hell
is that money going?

From the article, 539 inmates staying for at the minimum two years means there
was 28mil sunk per year just for those.

The prison system is due for a serious reform.

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hawkharris
Reloaded the page a few times and saw just the first two sentences of the
article. I understand why newspapers need paywalls — and I'm willing to pay
for quality journalism, but paywalls (especially ones that kick in almost
right away) make it hard to discuss articles that go viral on community sites
like HN.

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crymer11
I'm curious as to how this isn't an incredible violation of the sixth
amendment - "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right
to a speedy and public trial...".

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od2m
Came here to say this--and yes it is. No two ways about it. The 6th amendment
was meant to prevent exactly this situation.

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jacques_chester
For those of you wondering about the (current) headline, "Pre-served prison
sentence", it refers to time in custody on remand being subtracted from any
prison terms.

People who are charged with a serious crime are usually placed in custody to
prevent them skedaddling. Sometimes you can get bail to remain at large,
sometimes you can't. When you can't, you remain "in remand" -- not in custody
for punishment, merely to control the risk that you won't show for trial.

If a trial is held and you're found guilty, the judge first calculates a
sentence for each crime and then combines them. Assuming that the judge
sentences you to imprisonment, he or she will then subtract your time spent in
remand from that sentence. You have, in effect, served the time in custody
already -- the principle being that you shouldn't be punished more than once
for a crime.

Depending on jurisdiction a judge may also elect to set a non-parole period or
suspend the sentence.

This is why you sometimes hear things like, "John Citizen was found guilty and
sentenced to 10 years. He will be released in 7", when the trial process took
3 years.

Of course: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.

