Last Updated on: 3rd March 2015, 03:34 pm
Our legal system absolutely baffles me sometimes. I could probably go on and on for days about all the reasons why, but today I’ll just stick to one that particularly gets on my nerves.
I do not, and likely never will, understand the purpose of giving 2 for 1 credit during sentencing to people who spend time in custody while waiting for or going through a trial. This credit, as should be obvious, is only given to guilty people, which makes no sense whatsoever. If a person is guilty and you sentence him to 4 years in jail, why should he
be getting out in 18 days
just because he served a couple years already while the system did it’s work? If you want to give him credit for the 2 years he’s been sitting there, fine, be my guest. Other than because he’s a criminal, it isn’t really fair to lock somebody up for 6 years while sentencing him to 4. But that being the case, why wouldn’t you just do a little bit of simple math and give him a 2 year sentence, taking into account the 2 years you’ve already had him? Call me crazy, but it seems that would be the logical thing to do. I know I know, there I go again, using the L word. But I have to, and more people need to join me. If jail is supposed to be a deterrent, then we need to use it as one, not as a place where time passes twice as quickly as it does in the rest of the world and where people who shouldn’t be are spit out the other side long before their time.