17 year sentence

[bodekez]

Could someone please tell me if known.

If you get a 17 year prison sentence for death by dangerous driving. How long would the person have to actually spend in prison?

Thanks

You normally get a third off for good behaviour and any time spent on remand also gets taken off.

Is this to do with the case in Chester Le Street?

If it is, then 17 years isn't long enough - despicable crime.

@MamaSleep @MollyJustMight yes it is. I saw it on the news earlier and thought 17 years. Surely it should be more than that. How long will he have to actually do!!

Does that already include a third off for a guilty plea, so it would have otherwise been 25 years?

Horrific offence.

He will serve 11 years

Hopefully he will get a shiv in the ribs while he's on the wing

Why don't they have to do the full sentence they get, why only so much of it?

Because it’s a huge incentive for them to toe the line whilst in prison.
Imagine how many more fights and violence there would be in prison, there’s a lot already, if there was no incentive to behave.

They do do the full sentence, they do some of it on licence in the community under strict licence conditions, which if the breach then leads to their recall to custody.
Otherwise you have people spending 17 years in prison and then they just come out, how are they tested in the community? How do they reintegrate, get jobs, accommodation etc. People coming out now from very long sentences don't understand smart phones, the internet, just the way the modern world works, they need time under probation supervision and monitoring. If people aren't reintegrated they are much more likely to reoffend. It also gives an opportunity to complete further offence focused work in the community where the principles and tools can be used on day to day life, prison doesn't afford those opportunities.

In order to get one third off, you have to plead guilty at the first opportunity. He didn't, so he wouldn't have had that much of a reduction in his sentence. I'm not entirely clear exactly when he changed his plea but, given that the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving is 18 years under the current sentencing guidelines, it looks like he didn't get much of a reduction, if any, for changing his plea.

Thank you, @prh47bridge, that's really interesting.

Hopefully not. This does nothing to improve prison safety for anyone including the staff.

Because the sentence isn't just about the time spent in prison. It also included the time spent on licence, which includes time outside of prison.

It's my understanding that prison is about punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation. One of the great problems of any criminal justice system is supposed to be rates of recidivism. I think the argument is that society is safer and better off when all three objectives are met, and the rehabilitation element is of high quality and not some cheap token gesture.

The maximum credit for an early guilty plea is 1/3 off your total sentence if you plead guilty at the first magistrates’ court appearance. Any time after that gives a max credit of 25 per cent, moving down to 10 per cent for a guilty plea on the day of trial.

So that reduction is already taken off to get this defendant’s sentence down to 17 years (not sure how much credit he was given. Personally I always make this clear in my stories)

Then it’s standard to serve 2/3 of a long sentence (listed in part 2 of schedule 15 if you’re interested, but normally a sentence of more than 7 years) in prison and the remainder in the community on licence. Hence why he’ll serve 111.5 years) This is not affected by bad behaviour in prison. It’s automatic release, unless it’s a sentence that is eligible to go before the parole board, who will decide whether it’s safe for you to be released.

People serving shorter sentences only have to serve half in prison before being automatically released.

I think it’s a rotten system. I believe a fairer and more transparent system would see judges sentence offenders and they would then serve that time in jail. Nobody feels short-changed then. Under the current system it’s sometimes difficult for the defendant and victims to immediately understand what on earth has gone on at sentencing hearings. Sometimes the judge also gets it wrong and it has to be corrected under the slip rule.