# Woman sentenced to 2 days in jail ends up serving 5 months **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 27, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878 "2014-01-27T20:36:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/21 "2014-01-28T06:49:04Z")
What she looks like has nothing to do with her extended time in jail. Her appearance only came up because of her mug shot. I thought she looked a little hardened and street wise. Others here don’t see it that way. Either way it doesn’t matter. She shouldn’t have been held more than the original 2 days. I am surprised it’s the judge getting all the blame. It seems like her court appointed lawyer is the one that screwed up. It was the lawyer’s job to represent her client and raise hell when she wasn’t released after 2 days. Really I guess the lawyer and judge should be equally blamed. > [@Broomstick](#): > > What recourse does a forgotten prisoner have? She’s stuck at the jail, if there isn’t anyone there she can say “Hey, I’ve been here 5 months and I haven’t heard anything about anything, where can I get information” it basically means she can be stuck there indefinitely without trial. > And… what does her “attractiveness” have to do with the injustice of being given a two day sentence then literally forgotten for five months? Only pretty people are entitled to fair treatment or something? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/22 "2014-01-28T06:54:08Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > When I was detained for an alleged DUI that never went to trial or conviction, they held me for 48 hours including a prison transfer chained at hand and feet to other prisoners. At no point in time did the guards provide any information on when I would be released. At the time, I didn’t know about the 48 hour maximum for DUI probable cause, so as far as I knew, they were going to hold me for weeks or years without seeing a judge. > > When I asked a guard, when I would be released, he said he didn’t know but that I could fill out a “complaint form”. After I filled out said form, they transferred me from the municipal jail to a prison with barbed wire fence around it. I asked a couple other guards the same question, and their response was always “I don’t know” or “I’m not free to say” and have me fill out a paper form. > > Being processed into the prison involved a group strip down and anal cavity check. The jail cell walls had feces on it, and the toilet was not private. Many of the inmates were delirious. The guards referred to prisoners as “bodies”, and much of the time there weren’t any guards around to keep watch. The meals were about 700 calories of the same food every day. I don’t know why anyone would want to stay there for any amount of time even for free. > > In short, my guess is that she may have asked questions but the prison guards were less than helpful. Why didn’t you ask your lawyer any of the questions that you were directing to the guards? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/23 "2014-01-28T06:57:03Z")
I also wonder if she wasn’t sent to the jail on a sort of ‘default’ program, i.e., ‘prisoner gets to stay out of jail only as long as they are clean with the UA-otherwise, back to jail automatically to finish the 6-month sentence.’ It sounds like the kind of non-event that reporters kick up on a slow news day without going too in-depth, investigative journalism-wise. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/24 "2014-01-28T07:07:00Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Why didn’t you ask your lawyer any of the questions that you were directing to the guards? I didn’t have a lawyer since I had no prior need for one. You have one chance to call someone, and I used it to call my dad and tried to leave a message on his business answering machine which didn’t accept phone calls from prisons. I went to a lawyer after I was released. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/25 "2014-01-28T15:07:25Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > _It also emerged that Hoffman’s incarceration was ordered without a hearing or legal counsel._ > > Yeah, I’d say she’s going to get semi-rich off of this. But it does make you wonder why she didn’t start asking questions of her jailers somewhere along the 5th or 6th **day** , much less month. It’s not like she was in solitary. Even if she did, the corrections officials would pull their copy of the warrant of the court, which apparently ordered her to be held until further order of the court, not just for two days. They have to comply with that order. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/26 "2014-01-28T15:10:47Z")
[QUOTE=aceplace57] I am surprised it’s the judge getting all the blame. It seems like her court appointed lawyer is the one that screwed up. It was the lawyer’s job to represent her client and raise hell when she wasn’t released after 2 days. Really I guess the lawyer and judge should be equally blamed. [/QUOTE] According to the article you quoted in the OP, she didn’t have a lawyer and there was no hearing. That means it all falls on the judge. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/27 "2014-01-28T15:26:11Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Her appearance only came up because of her mug shot. I thought she looked a little hardened and street wise. Actually, the issue came up because you implied that it was better for her to be in jail than “living on the streets.” I brought up her mug shot because she definitely does not look like she is homeless. She could well be a serious drug addict – of course nobody can tell that from a photo. However, I don’t see that homeless women get their hair bleached very often, which this woman obviously does. Therefore, I surmised she doesn’t look homeless. Then you commented she looks “rough,” which seems to be based on the fact that she’s wearing no makeup and her roots are showing a bit. It’s an absurd leap to conclude, as you did, that looking a little “rough” means she was better off in jail. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/28 "2014-01-28T15:52:49Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > According to the article you quoted in the OP, she didn’t have a lawyer and there was no hearing. That means it all falls on the judge. Come on. You don’t expect the OP to read his own article, do you? Not when he’s so busy evaluating her appearance. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/29 "2014-01-28T16:19:20Z")
There was one who seemed to have been forgotten for a very long time in one UK prison. He had been locked up on ‘Her Majesties Pleasure’ which is effectively a life sentence.(It usually applies to young people committing serious offences) When you are on HM Pleasure sentence, you can only be released when reviewed, however its is usually straight Life Sentence prisoners who get the lifer review, HM Pleasure prisoners are not quite the same category, and so rare in adult prisons it seems he was simply forgotten and never submitted for review. Result was that he had done 23 years, without killing or injuring anyone in his original offence, and to get a sense of what sort of people actually do 23 years, well its reserved for murderers, mobsters, terrorists and offenders of the highest degree of danger and for the most serious offences. In fact most murderers will be out in less time than that. He ended up at the time being one of Britain’s longest serving prisoners, this was back in 1993 and he had done almost as much time as the Kray twins. Some reckon that he decided he had already done more than one sentence, and was owed on crime in return, he wasn’t exactly a complete dining service full of best china upstairs either. > **[Arsonist set fire to same barn twice](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/arsonist-set-fire-to-same-barn-twice-1391981.html)** > > A FARM WORKER was given his second life sentence yesterday for burning down the same farm he set fire to 23 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/30 "2014-01-28T18:08:39Z")
She’s kind of hot. Maybe the OP is confused by pixellation. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/31 "2014-01-28T18:33:49Z")
I had read the entire article a few hours earlier. It was pretty late when I replied to Broomstick and had forgotten she didn’t have a lawyer. Now that there’s money to be made the lawyers will be lining up. This mistake will cost the county and taxpayers. > [@mhendo](#): > > Come on. You don’t expect the OP to read his own article, do you? Not when he’s so busy evaluating her appearance. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/32 "2014-01-28T19:27:05Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s hard for me to think of any drug addict as “attractive”. Meh, there’s something to be said for “heroin chic”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/33 "2014-01-28T19:29:15Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > She’s kind of hot. Maybe the OP is confused by pixellation. Yep, the first time I saw Japanese porn, I thought the women were anatomically unique.😛 ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/34 "2014-01-28T19:39:24Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Meh, there’s something to be said for “heroin chic”. There [certainly used to be…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin_chic) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/35 "2014-01-29T01:39:13Z")
An explanation for what happened and why the woman had no legal representation. > **[Charges to be dropped in Clark County jail case; lawsuit moving forward](https://www.newsandtribune.com/news/clark_county/charges-to-be-dropped-in-clark-county-jail-case-lawsuit-moving-forward/article_a6ffe401-f802-5fac-a32c-054df11354eb.html)** > > Charges against a Jeffersonville woman who spent five months in jail for a 48-hour sentence are expected to be dropped while she moves ahead with filing a civil lawsuit against > [@](#): > > Both Masingo and Mull have stated that Hoffman was under the watch of Jacobi and his staff at the time of her incarceration, and his court was the only party responsible for her incarceration > > “I was no longer her attorney while she was in the drug court program,” Masingo said, explaining that pubic defenders withdraw their legal services after offenders enter the drug court program. “However, once her liberty was at stake [incarceration], I should have been reappointed. The judge [Jacobi] should have reappointed the public defender’s office to represent her before sending her to jail. That is part of her constitutional rights that were violated. They violated her due process rights and her right to representation by counsel. They did not reappoint me as her attorney like they should have.” > > Mull said it is not up to prosecutors when a drug court program participant is released when they have been jailed for a drug court violation, such as Hoffman, who provided a diluted result during a drug screening. > > “Once an individual enters the drug court program, they are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the judge and the drug court employees that the judge has hired,” Mull said. “So, as prosecutors we do not have the authority to incarcerate them, to release them from incarceration, to control any of their behavior. That authority is given to the court staff, under the drug court paradigm.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/36 "2014-01-29T02:34:42Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > What recourse does a forgotten prisoner have? She’s stuck at the jail, if there isn’t anyone there she can say “Hey, I’ve been here 5 months and I haven’t heard anything about anything, where can I get information” it basically means she can be stuck there indefinitely without trial. I can only speak for prison not jail (it’s two different systems) but people in prison do have access to legal services. It sounds to me like Hoffman should have filed for a Writ of Habeas Corpus, which is basically a motion that a person is being illegally detained and should be given a chance to appear before a judge. On a separate note, Michaelia Gilbert of the Clark County prosecutor’s office deserves credit for discovering Hoffman’s situation and working through it to get her released. As a prosecutor, it wasn’t within Gilbert’s normal job duties to help get somebody released from jail but she saw there was an injustice being done and did something about it. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/37 "2014-01-29T03:15:54Z")
My takeaway from this is that with anything that involves incarcerating somebody that is “automatic” with no need for a hearing for going in, there should then always be a known, set date within a fixed X number of days for an actual hearing or meeting as to what is going to be done next – actual trial, sentencing for contempt, referral to residential rehab, whatever – and not just leave it for whenever the Court happens to get around to it. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878/38 "2014-01-29T03:32:11Z")
That is how it works in Canada under our criminal procedure; there’s always either a return date (the accused must be returned to court for further proceedings), or a definite end to the period of incarceration ordered by the Court. The process outlined in this article seems ripe for abuse, even by inadvertence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woman-sentenced-to-2-days-in-jail-ends-up-serving-5-months/679878.md?page=1)