Alright, my current GF’s mother has a problem. She has been shoplifting. Recently, she was caught shoplifting a purse (AFAIK the purse costs a few hundred $$$)
My girlfriend claims that her mother is going to prison tomorrow for over a year. I know that in Illinois that prisons are overcrowded. I find it incredibly hard to believe that they would send someone to prison over shoplifting a purse even though her mother has a couple of incidents getting caught shoplifting in the past.
So what is the precedent in Illinois for such a situation? What do you think she’ll get? How likely is prison, or even jail? I’ve taken a few classes on law but I’m far from knowledgable enough to be accurate with what I say. I’m trying to ease her mind.
She also mentioned “restitution” to the place where the purse was stolen from. I may be wrong (and probably am) but isn’t restitution only in civil cases, not criminal?
What do ya dopers think?
I am not licensed in Illinois. I’m not your lawyer, or your GF’s lawyer, or your GF’s mother’s lawyer, or your GF’s mother’s lawyer’s lawyer. You don’t want legal advice; if you did, you certainly wouldn’t post on a messageboard for everyone to read. So I’m not going to give you legal advice; what follows is simply an educational message.
A felony is generally defined as a crime that carries a punishment of a year or more in prison. It looks like, under Illinois’s criminal statute, theft of something worth more than $300 is a felony.
So, yes, it is possible for someone to steal a purse worth more than $300 and be found guilty of a felony. If your GF is right, and her mama is going away tomorrow for more than a year, it sounds like mama already had her trial (or plea bargained). Maybe she’ll get out early for good behavior?
And, yes, courts can include an order of restitution as part of the sentence, so your GF’s mother could be ordered to pay back an amount equivalent to what she stole, pay court costs and fees (for her trial), and serve her time.
Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear. Best of luck.
My brother went to prison for 6 months for getting in a drunken fight and being stupid enough not to comply with the courts orders when the other guy pressed charges. So yeah, I can see jail time for shoplifting.
If she’s had incidents in the past she might have already been on probation. Minor crimes frequently result in a slap on the wrist, but judges can get pretty tired of seeing the same person in front of them for the same crime again and again. I knew someone who served a year over a joint–not because the joint was so horrible–but because it was his fourth or fifth time being in trouble since originally being placed on probation. It can add up.