Prison and sentencing

[sillyme1234]

Hi trying to help a friend

Their brother is estranged from the family. They've been found guilty of a crime. Awaiting sentence. Before this they were held in prison or whatever they hold people, so couldn't be at their home before they went to court.

Does this mean they are 100% going to prison and won't be going back to their home?

They have months of rent arrears as not been working or paying rent as been held before trial

Often, by the time the case comes to court they have already served their time on remand and are released immediately.

So it depends on the sentence he gets.

Thank you

Why is he held in the first place?

If they are held on remand, it usually means that either the crime for which they are charged is very serious, they might be considered a danger to others or themselves or they are considered a flight risk.

What have they been found guilty of? Then you can look up maximum sentences and the average sentence guidelines. If they have a solicitor the should be able to give them an idea of what to expect.

She doesn't know due to GDPR and she's not been able to speak to him direct. They are suggesting 3 years

If he’s been to court and been found guilty those records are public. She can search the crown court and it will say what he was in court for, it lists all the charges.

There is no GDPR involved, court proceedings are public.

If he is sentenced for 3 yrs, assuming not suspended he will be taken directly from sentencing hearing to prison. He will likely serve 1.5 years and then 1.5 years on license.

If she knows where the case was heard there will be public records of charges and convictions. Whose rent was not paid if they were estranged?

https://www.gov.uk/benefits-and-prison/housing-benefit

Often less now due to changes to hdc eligibility timeframes , if he gets less than 4 years he'll be hdc eligible at 25%

But time already served on remand (prison before court case) is often be included. So if he was prison for 9 months before the court case he will only need to serve another 9 months.

I forgot about this. So if sentenced for 3 years he could be eligible for early release after 9 month and he may have alreafy served that.

Chuck in FTR48 or home office bail or detention and this is why release date calculation mistakes get made! So much change and too many variables now. I feel sorry for the poor custody admin doing the calculations

There’s many variables that mean it’s near impossible to say without knowing what his crime was but generally those held on remand until sentencing are considered a danger to the public, at high risk of being unable to comply with bail conditions or trusted to show up to court (if they’ve done this after a previous offence for example), are at high risk of committing further offences, there’s a high probability of them absconding, or they have reason to believe they might try and contact/interfere with a witness or victim.

Whether he gets to come home or not depends entirely on what he’s being sentenced for and how long he’s been on remand as his time on remand will count towards his time served.

Not necessarily but probably more likely. The time spent on remand will be reduced from the actual sentence given by the courts.