This can't be correct

[chickenfeet]

In this BBC story the claim is made that a 35 year old has been jailed 32 times. I find that absolutely unbelievable. He might have received 32 jail sentences with large numbers running concurrently but 32 separate terms of imprisonment would imply an average time served of 7 or 8 months for an habitual offender. Shurely shome mishtake.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Could be right - a lot of them could have been short stretches for piblic disorder, possession of drugs, vandalism etc.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Really? "Taking into account your previous 25 convictions, I sentence you to 60 days". It sounds a bit daft to me. But then how did he get bail? "M'lud, my client has only 32 previous convictions and is therefore most unlikely to reoffend while on bail".

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Sounds entirely likely to me too - there is one child in smallclanger's class whose father has been away 10 times in the last 2 years - not usually for more than 10 days, but I think he did 2 months at one point. It's usually petty stuff that most people would get a fine/community service for, but when you've no money and a record that goes back to your early teens, you tend to get short sentences instead, it seems. (Not paying the fines from previous encounters is probably a guaranteed way to get yourself incarcerated.)

[liadnan]

More likely to be that because of their record they are going down for a short time when otherwise they would have been given community service or a suspended sentence. Not my field but anecdotal evidence from people I know on that side of things makes me think it's completely plausible.

Yes, sentencing policy over here is completely screwey, and unlikely to get better in the current climate.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Yes, sentencing policy over here is completely screwey, and unlikely to get better in the current climate.

It really is hard to see what public purpose is served by repeatedly locking someone up for very short periods of time.

[adjectivegail]

Yes - I worked at the Prison Infection Prevention Team for 20 months, and one of the statistics policy makers persistently refused to believe, is that the average male British jail term is six months or less. Given that a fair few of them, on the day of their release, promptly go round the corner and nick an old lady's handbag and are back in the same prison that same evening, I can easily envision someone who's 35 years old and has been inside 32+ times.

My colleagues did a bloodborne virus survey in 2000 and one of the first questions was how many sentences have you had. Apparently most of them were sitting there counting on their fingers and then giving up going, "dunno, mate."

[adjectivegail]

Also, although the adult prisons can't take people younger than 18, Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) can take people from the age of 15. So depending on how young he started...