In Jeffery Archer’s most recent collection of short stories, there’s one about a guy who sleeps rough but every October commits a minor crime carrying a 4-6 month sentence so he can skip the winter. These are supposedly all true stories told to him directly but whether you take Archer’s word on anything is up to you.
In the story the man is happy with the arrangement, with no real interest in changing the cycle, but is this a real phenomenon? Do noticeable amounts of people in cold areas commit crimes purely to be kept warm over the winter?
Absolutely - though I doubt there will be verifiable sources for this, I have hear of this phenomenon quite often. While some homeless presfer shelters and other sources of non-jailhouse accomodations, some actually do want to be put in jail because you get cable, 3-square meals a day, warm living arrangements, and all the books and library stuff you can imagine.
Seems like it would be rather difficult to commit a crime of just the right severity to land you in jail for the winter. Do something too minor, you just get probabtion. Do something too bad, and you end up spending the whole year in prison and getting out just as it gets cold again.
I don’t believe it. There are not many crimes that carry a four to six month sentence. Most crimes are divided into two categories. Misdemeanors carry a max sentence of one year (a few are max six months). Felonies have a minimum sentence of a year and a day. Even the misdemeanors can turn into felonies based on priors. Besides, most people are not experts on sentencing structures enough to calculate something that will earn them the desired sentence. Don’t get me wrong people often get a four or six month sentence but the next time they get convicted it will be a eight to ten months for the same crime and the next time it will be 10 to 12 months. Do the same hing enough and the prosecutor will find a way to charge it as a felony. Example: simple shoplifting can be charged as felony burglary.
Based on that, I guess it wouldn’t work in the US then. I think the UK has less ability for judges to modify sentences though. In the UK you’re more likely to get what ‘The Book’ says you should get. (No cite, probably talking out my ass).
I’m not sure this is entirely accurate. IANA lawyer, but I have certainly heard of homeless people doing this, and often a good judge will catch on, or a good attorney will understand what is happening. Even our convoluted judicial system can step in and either throw a case out, or reduce a sentence or whatever. And in our society today in the USA, many felony non-violent offenders are being let off a one year sentence at 4,5,6 months. No cite of course.
My mother was a policewoman and used to work in prison in Italy. She did tell me the same kind of story, about homeless people doing minor crimes to spend the winter in prison. She often mentioned the story of a woman she had in her prison called Lucia that did that for so many years that one year the judges of her town recognized her on sight and discharged her. To get round this, Lucia decided she would do something new, so she found a policeman and, ummmm, inappropriately touched him. Long. Of course the policeman tried to resist and stop her, but she was successful enough to get herself landed in prison again.
As to felony sentences it is common for people to do less than a year. That is because they are granted probation instead of being sent to prison. When probation is granted a judge may impose up to one year in jail as a condition of probation. So many people convicted of felonies get a short amount of time in jail or even no time in jail. But in my jurisdiction at least you are not eligible for probation if you have two prior felonies. Even then a judge can impose probation if he/she finds compelling reasons to do so. Please note there is a huge difference between Prison and Jail. Also note that based on good time work time programs most people are only required to complete half of their sentence. Ususlly a person sent to prison for 1 year will be out in 6 months. While a person sentenced to 1 year in jail will get out in 8 months.
For what purpose? To ensure that a person who deliberately committed a crime is shoved back out into society, where he can go ahead and commit yet another crime?
A person who wants to get jailed is just going to continue to escalate their crimes until you comply, that’s not what I want my law enforcement system to encourage.
In 10 years as a probation officer I have never known anybody to do exactly what is described in the OP. That would be very difficult to time correctly because it takes 1-3 months after the commission of the crime for the case to work its way through the system. Even if you waived all your rights at the initial hearing and plead guilty, it still probably wouldn’t work.
I regularly have people come on probation that say they don’t want the hassle of probation and would rather just do the time in jail. I’ve never had anyone say, though, that the reason is because of the cold weather, they usually say they don’t want the hassle of counseling and community service and me showing up at their home and work unexpectedly.
I have known people that will arrange to spend one night in jail, if it is going to be really cold they’ll throw a brick at a police car or something so they can spend the night in jail. That’s quite different from arranging to spend the whole winter. The possibility of successfully negotiating all of the legal and timing issues would be pretty remote, even for someone like me that’s worked in the system.
Somewhat related, I know of serious skid row alcoholics who treat hospital this way. They abuse their bodies (not only through booze but lack of food) so much they spend asemi-regular fortnight or so in hospital. The drugs ease the withdrawal horrors a little, and they get three square. But importantly, they get their pension stacking up in the bank. They come out of hospital, rested, well-fed, and with a couple of thousand dollars to blow on their next binge. Then back to hospital.
Depends on where in Italy you are. Remember that the Northern Plains (Italy’s most populated region) is bordered by the Alps.
Also remember that the 2006 Winter Olympics were held in Torino.
As someone who has worked in social services and with social workers for the last 13 years, I concur. Maybe this is a phenomenon in the large urbanized cities (Chicano, NY, etc), but at least in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas area that would not work. Most of the city jails are small and the municipalities tend to ship off their inmates to county jail. County jail may give them 3 meals and a bed, but you are sharing space with harden criminals in huge rooms (no individualized room). Most of the homeless folks that I have worked with usually go through the same routine: beg for $$ during certain hours, go to shelter or food community pantry on key hours for food (usually b’fast and dinner), and get overnight sleeping arrangements in a park or shelter. Most of the homeless folks, in my experience, avoid the po-po.
People do occassionaly get deliberately get arrested to escape the cold. A deputy was telling me a little while back about a guy who turned up at jail wanting to be arrested who was told he couldn’t be because he hadn’t done anything. He asked “well, will I be arrested if I pee in this trash can?” and was told he would. He did, and was dutifully arrested for disorderly conduct.
As far as getting probation when you don’t want it, generally not a problem. A prosecutor if asked will usually give an “either-or” recommendation, either jail time or probation depending on the preference of the defendant. Some people would rather just go to jail and get it over with, and some people, especially indigent defendants with numerous minor convictions, will just get offers of jail time and no offer of probation. Not good candidates, no job and no money, why set them up to fail, etc.
We do have “repeat customers” who turn up at jail call with their 500th public intoxication or criminal trespass, and the misdemeanor DA will give them four months flat time in the county partially as punishment and partially to prevent them from passing out and freezing in a ditch. That’s usually the prosecutor’s idea, though, not the inmate’s. Occasionally these guys will even turn up at jail drunk acting crazy looking for a place to spend the night, but they generally consider it a temporary solution and want out again as soon as they can. One of these guys could probably arrange to spend around four months in the county jail for a minor infraction if they wanted to (commit a minor misdemeanor, get arrested, get taken to jail call next week, plead to 120 days flat) but I haven’t seen it yet.
As far as the prospects of jail vs. the street, I have no doubt there are (for example) hungry people out there who are quite conscious that stealing a loaf of bread either results in them eating a sandwich on the street or getting a free sandwich in jail. Likewise with other basic unmet physical needs.
As to intentionally timing the system for wintertime, I doubt it. We never hear of anyone doing this except after the fact. We have no way of verifying whether:
1: they were just lying or boasting (oh yea, I may look like a mentally ill crack addict, but I got the system beat, buddy)
2: whether they were rationalizing their own incarceration (I meant to do that)
3: or whether it’s a third party using the story for their own agenda (What the liberals don’t want you to know is that our jails are so cushy that in the wintertime, the homeless commit crimes just to get jailed! Wake up sheeple!)
BTW, Jeffery Arsehole is a British (and awful) author. I presume that the story is set over here. (guessing, I could be wrong) While comment about the US system may be interesting, they perhaps don’t answer the question.
