When will his 4-day jail sentence end??

Factual Questions
1

crawling out from under the rock she’s been lurking under for past 2 years…

Long time reader here, but haven’t posted in quite a while. After a fruitless 8-hour quest for an answer from city employees and googling, jeevesing, etc…I realized I ought to see if anyone on the Dope boards could be of assistance. So without further ado…

My SO was arrested Monday night at 8:30 pm, for a years-old traffic ticket he never paid for. Arresting officer said I could pay the $135 fine, or just let it go for the night. Officer assured me that my old man would see judge around 9:30am Tuesday, and it was all but guaranteed the judge would pass sentence for time served, so no big whoop.

I roll into the municipal courthouse at 9:30 am the next day, only to find that there is no court today, and my SO is still sitting in the city jail waiting for the judge to make his “round”. The clerk explains that the judge will show up at some point, but he never tells them when, and his arrival time changes daily. My old man finally is able to call me at 2pm to say the judge passed a total sentence of 4 days. However, judge didn’t say whether time already spent counted torward the 4 days or not. I’m trying to figure out when they are going to release him, because no one at the jail will tell him, and the folks I asked don’t seem to know anything about how their system works either.

SO - is jail time totalled up by actual hours spent in the clink, or by passing days regardless of what time he was booked? Would the 4 days commence after the judge passes the sentence, or does the 4 day period start as of the time he was booked? :confused:

I’ve lived a sheltered life, I suppose, because I have NO CLUE about this sort of thing!! The kids are driving me bat-poop wondering when their dad will be back home. Not to mention the appointments he missed and deadlines he didn’t meet, which I have to cover for. I just want to know when he’ll be back - tomorrow, Friday, Saturday…or gulp even later than that?

Many thanks for any help you folks can give… :slight_smile:

2

IANAL, etc…

“the judge passed a total sentence of 4 days”

To me this sounds like hubby will get credit for time served, suggesting 8:30 Friday night. But there might have been a booking delay where they might start timing it from when they closed the cell door, possibly adding on a few hours.

Good luck

3

Of course the jail will be the best place to ask, but I can tell you that here in Illinois, most jail sentences get day for day good time credit. A four day sentence would be two days actually served, and if your hubby was arrested yesterday, I would imagine he would be released later today (that is if the judge gave him credit for time served.) Hopefully he’ll be there in time for dinner.

4

If I could buy my way out of four days of jail with $135.00, I’d break all kinds of speed records writing that check.

5

I’m not the OP, but I think it’s likely the $135 mentioned was for bail. It wouldn’t have affected the sentence, just meant hubby didn’t sit in jail between arrest and judgement.

To answer the OP, every time my ex went away, (yes, I said every time, notice I also said ex :)) release was in the mid-morning, regardless of the time he was booked. So without any good-time reductions, my best guess would be that he’d be released on Friday morning. Did you not have a lawyer for him? That’s who would likely know best.

6

Sorry. by “good-time reductions” do you mean time reduced in prison for good behaviour? or just time before trial counting as time towards the eventual sentence?

If the second, can you get reductions in very short sentances due to good behaviour in prison? Early release at a parole meeting for sentances less than a few months?

7

If the Judge didn’t specify, then the jail most likely would count the time served as part of the four days.

My Judge usually is very specific that the time served after being picked up on a warrant is NOT part of the sentence, since that time was just part of getting the defendant to court.

8

Good-time reduction means you get time knocked off for not causing trouble, or being a “good” prisoner. Time-served is what they call time spent waiting for trial, although Badge made a point I hadn’t thought of with the warrant-based time perhaps not counting.

I don’t know what policy is as to good-time reductions in very short sentences, although I’m sure it varies from state to state or even prison to prison. It’s likely the OPs hubby is not in prison, but the local jail, which is where the vast majority of short (less than a year) jail terms are served, as far as I know.