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[Carlos Gustavos]

I have a change ready that would make the sentences of escaped prisoners not get lost. I'm posting about this because I find not being able to get rid off a sentence by going to a new trial on unrelated charges somewhat gamechanging. Once someone's got a life or death sentence they can't ever be free of them. So I'm interested in what you think.

If an escaped prisoner is brought to trial the new sentence will only replace the old one if it's harsher. If they are of the same type they'll be added together (but not death penalties of course). I don't know if that makes sense for a US court or is close enough for the game.

I'm also uncertain about language used by a US court. As I've written it now, somebody with an old sentence but considered not guilty of new crimes "will be returned to prison to resume an earlier sentence." If new and old sentences are mashed together there'll be a line after the new sentence "It will be added to your existing sentence." Or if the old sentence is harser or already death then "the court sees no need to add to your existing sentence."

Last, there are a couple of oddities I'm concerned about:

Escapees can rack up life sentences by repeatedly escaping prison and turning themselves in. Maybe life sentence for escaping prison should be changed?

Having escaped a death penalty makes all new trials irrelevant as they'll always be sent back to death row.
Also, should death row be resumed with the same amount of time remaining, rescheduled to three months again or keep the old date if it hasn't been passed? Or maybe immediate execution by death squad?

Code

[Leafsnail]

This makes sense - if a death row prisoner broke out they wouldn't downgrade his sentence.

It would make sense to hurry up the death penalty for someone who's already escaped it once, yeah.

[Soadreqm]

I figure the three months is supposed to represent a mandatory wait while the wheels of bureaucracy turn and the Conservatives execute all the prisoners ahead of your guy in the execution queue, and thus cannot really be hurried. At C+ death penalty, I could see the liberal getting summarily executed with no wait (or even a trial), but otherwise I think it should reset the death row counter back to three months. Maybe there should also be a chance to get the death sentence downgraded to imprisonment if the laws have become more liberal in the meantime. At L+, the death penalty is obviously abolished, and I think the game is already supposed to cancel pending executions when that happens.

As for escaping prison always resulting in a life sentence, I think that was mainly a hack to keep people from completely cleaning their criminal records by escaping prison and then lawyering themselves free of the escape charge. Since that is no longer an issue, it should probably be toned down. I don't think escaping prison is a crime at all in some jurisdictions, provided you don't break any other laws while breaking out.

[KA101]

KA101 the Pennsylvania Lawyer here.

Generally, escaped prisoners aren't even tried for escaping prison, simply sent back.  Extra sentences would be "$SENTENCE, to be served consecutively" to tack it onto the previous term, or as a potential Leniency "$SENTENCE, to be served concurrently" to have it run at the same time.  (So, you could be doing (say) 3 years for Theft and another 5 for Assault.  That would be 8 years consecutive, or 5 years concurrent.)

For those of us outside the US, our "federal" system means that different cities might mean significantly separate justice systems: in particular, most crimes are actually prosecuted by the individual state where they took place, rather than the DC government.  So Liberals in LA would likely be arrested by California, not by the Government.  (Until you do something like Treason or pull a crime on the Army Base, which is federal property so the feds handle it.  The Nuclear Plant is in fact NOT federal property, IIRC, so it wouldn't count.)  Each state runs their own police, courts, and prisons, as does the DC crowd.  (Federal facilities are heavier-duty and usually harsher.)  And then there's the problem of the LCS as a multi-state "domestic terror network" so the FBI starts coordinating multiple states' investigations.  Cue "FBI HUNTS LCS" and inevitable destruction.

Upshot: In National LCS, your sleeper Lawyer in a given area might be able to tie up the process for a few days via the extradition paperwork, so you could have (say) 2-3 days to spring the Liberal from the Police Station.

Example: Flighty the Liberal jailed in NY, escapes, arrested in LA on escaped-fugitive charge.  LA lawyer can buy the LA squads three days to break Flighty back out, but SEA/NY couldn't as they aren't admitted to practice in California.  If Flighty had done anything criminal in LA, California would possibly want to try xyr for that.  Who gets Flighty at the end of the trial depends on the crimes involved and the trial results.

I figure the three months is supposed to represent a mandatory wait while the wheels of bureaucracy turn and the Conservatives execute all the prisoners ahead of your guy in the execution queue, and thus cannot really be hurried. At C+ death penalty, I could see the liberal getting summarily executed with no wait (or even a trial), but otherwise I think it should reset the death row counter back to three months. Maybe there should also be a chance to get the death sentence downgraded to imprisonment if the laws have become more liberal in the meantime. At L+, the death penalty is obviously abolished, and I think the game is already supposed to cancel pending executions when that happens.

As for escaping prison always resulting in a life sentence, I think that was mainly a hack to keep people from completely cleaning their criminal records by escaping prison and then lawyering themselves free of the escape charge. Since that is no longer an issue, it should probably be toned down. I don't think escaping prison is a crime at all in some jurisdictions, provided you don't break any other laws while breaking out.

Yeah, non-C+ DP does take forever to process.

That last bit seems completely counterintuitive and I can't imagine any jurisdiction failing to make escaping from lawful confinement (as in, jail/prison) a crime.  Gonna ask for a cite there.

[Soadreqm]

Wikipedia has this to say:

In some jurisdictions, such as in the United States, escaping from jail or prison is a criminal offense. In Virginia, for instance, the punishment for escape depends on whether the offender escaped by using force or violence or setting fire to the jail, and the seriousness of the offense for which they were imprisoned.[1][2][3] In other jurisdictions[which?], the philosophy of the law holds that it is human nature to want to escape. In Mexico, for instance, escapees who do not break any other laws are not charged for anything and no extra time is added to their sentence;[4] however, officers are allowed to shoot prisoners attempting to escape.[5] In Mexico, an escape is illegal if violence is used against prison personnel or property or if prison inmates or officials aid the escape.[6]

Apparently happens in Mexico. I could see it as being a thing in LCS if the prison laws swing Liberal enough.

[KA101]

And I'll throw out that the same law (Wiki's sources are circa 2002) allows C+ Police & Death Penalty during a prison escape: cops can shoot to kill anyone attempting an escape.

http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6714

(The article cited also notes the law's contribution to a culture of celebrity criminals.  Not sure if the LCS wants to recruit El Samsonite.)

[Jonathan S. Fox]

Soad correctly notes that the severity of the escaping prison charge in game is a hack to keep you from exploiting the system by escaping, turning yourself in, and getting a lesser sentence. Retaining the previous sentence would fix this and allow it to be greatly reduced.

[Elodie Hiras]

I had just a question. What should realistically happen if someone is jailed for a crime, and while that person is jailed, a change of laws means that his offense is no longer illegal?

Or, in LCS terms, a LCS activist gets jailed for life for counts of harmful speech in the hundreds (the judge was lenient). A few month roll, and free speech laws get to C (where there isn't such a thing as a harmful speech anymore). What should logically happen?

[hector13]

I had just a question. What should realistically happen if someone is jailed for a crime, and while that person is jailed, a change of laws means that his offense is no longer illegal?

Or, in LCS terms, a LCS activist gets jailed for life for counts of harmful speech in the hundreds (the judge was lenient). A few month roll, and free speech laws get to C (where there isn't such a thing as a harmful speech anymore). What should logically happen?

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Criminal+Law

paragraphs 8 and 9 state:

"A criminal statute does not lapse by failure of authorities to prosecute violations of it. If a statute is expressly repealed by the legislature, but some of its provisions are at the same time re-enacted, the re-enacted provisions continue in force without interruption. If a penal statute is repealed without a saving clause, which would provide that the statute continues in effect for crimes that were committed prior to its repeal, violations committed prior to its repeal cannot be prosecuted or punished after its repeal.

The same principles govern pending criminal proceedings. The punishment that is provided under a repealed statute without a saving clause cannot be enforced, nor can the proceeding be prosecuted further, even if the accused pleads guilty. A court cannot inflict punishment under a statute that no longer exists. If a relevant statute is repealed while an appeal of a conviction is pending, the conviction must be set aside if there is no saving clause. However, once a final judgment of conviction is handed down on appeal, a subsequent repeal of the statute upon which the conviction is based does not require reversal of the judgment."

Awesome. Coding that in, from my perspective as code-illiterate, might be tricky. Would there be an assumption that every change of law to being more liberal would have a saving clause, or not? What about appeals, too?

[Ihlosi]

Awesome. Coding that in, from my perspective as code-illiterate, might be tricky. Would there be an assumption that every change of law to being more liberal would have a saving clause, or not? What about appeals, too?

I would guess that saving clauses are fairly rare.

The usual rule is that changes of law must not put the offender/prisoner in a worse position (if the law becomes more restrictive, "nulla poena sine lege"), but must put him in a better position (if the law becomes less restrictive).

Coding something like this would probably require tracking the crimes a Liberal is doing time for even after sentencing, instead of lumping everything up in a single sentence (this might also be used for things like concurrent sentencing to avoid ridiculously long jail terms for, say, multiple counts of vandalism). Once something is no longer illegal, those parts of the sentence vanish. Tracking could be done using a vector of "crime" structures/objects for eact liberal that track the status of the crime in question (wanted for/found not guilty of/found guilty of and sentenced to X months with Y months remaining/found guilty of, sentence served, etc).

[Callista]

Perhaps, if death penalty laws are extreme, the prison generates Death Squads along with whatever guards are usually there. That would represent their license to kill anyone trying to escape.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

Awesome. Coding that in, from my perspective as code-illiterate, might be tricky. Would there be an assumption that every change of law to being more liberal would have a saving clause, or not? What about appeals, too?

Currently, free speech and flag burning are the only things that make crimes vanish. If you commit the crime prior to the repeal but are not yet convicted, it's struck from your record once it ceases to be a crime. If you're convicted prior to the repeal, you still have to serve the time.

[Carlos Gustavos]

Thanks for the responses and I have made some changes from what I wrote before.

New sentences will be served consecutively unless the judge is lenient, then concurrently. I'm not entirely satisfied with this as leniency already reduces the sentence, so you get double leniency.

Death sentences are always rescheduled to three months.

Escaping prison is now punished with 3-18 months. The numbers aren't really based on anything though.

[Jonathan S. Fox]

All sounds great. I like the concurrent/consecutive distinction based on the judge's leniency.