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by Anonymous on January 7th, 2009

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What determines whether or not a criminal receives "life-time in jail" or "230 years in jail"? Watched a prison tv show the other day, and was very confused by this...

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  • by Answer Guy on January 9th, 2009

    Answer Guy

    Every criminal statute must have a sentence attached to it to be valid. While they may have a set range of sentence known as "determinate" sentences(for example, basic felonies such as possession of drugs in California carries 16 months, 2 years or 3 years in prison as a possible sentence) or an "indeterminate" sentence (something to life).

    Each state will have its own criminal statutes on sentencing, but most will allow running the sentences on various counts consecutive (one after another) which can lead to a huge number of years, such as the 230 years in your question.

    Other crimes carry a "life" sentence. That doesn't automatically mean life though. In California, for example, if the crime is punishable by life in prison, it is a life sentence, but the defendant is eligible for parole in 7 years. If the sentence is "life without eligibility of parole" (LWOP), then the defendant truly will serve the rest of their natural life in prison. If the sentence is XX years to life (no matter what that number is), then that's the minimum number of years (with some variation on "good behavior" credits depending on what the conviction is for) that they must serve before parole eligibility.

    The sentences that are huge numbers to life (250 years to life) are obviously life sentences, but the laws behind the crime can lead to these huge sentences.

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