weekend at Bernie's

[the_siobhan]

I was telling somebody this story recently and it reminded me that the_axel initially said he was going to post about it, but has never gotten around to it. So I'll do it instead.

A couple of years ago the two of us were driving from Toronto to Montreal early on a Friday afternoon and we picked up a hitch-hiker. He said he was going to a small town about an hour down the road called Napanee. (If you’ve ever heard of it it’s only because Avril Lavigne grew up there.) Once we got there he directed me to drop him off at a Tim Horton's by the highway. "I'm going to jail," he said, pointing out a concrete building across the street from the coffee shop parking lot "But they're not open yet."

I wouldn't have thought anything of it but Axel thought the whole incident was hilarious. Both because the guy was hitch-hiking to get to jail and the idea that he might actually have to wait until they opened to be let in. I suggested that he was probably doing weekends, which was something Axel had never even heard of. So I explained it to him.

Serving time on weekends is an option that is available to the courts when convicting somebody of a non-violent crime. I've known quite a few people who've done this, and every single one of them was arrested for selling drugs. The logic is that if they have a full-time job putting them in jail for an extended period of time will potentially result in them being unemployed when they get out - which may lead to them doing something illegal to support themselves, like say, selling drugs. On the other hand being in jail every weekend is really going to cut down on a person's party time which might be seen as a good idea if your end goal is to get a small time drug-dealer to knock it the hell off.

The disadvantage to you if you're the one being convicted is obviously that it drags a sentence out for friggin' ever. The advantage is not only that you get to keep your income - and therefore your place to live and other possessions - but that you actually spend less physical time in the bucket than if you were doing straight time. Intake is usually early Friday evening (hence his comment that they weren't open yet) and you get released early Sunday. This is counted as three days served.

It's made very clear that serving your time on weekends is a privilege that could be yanked at any time if they think you’re screwing around. I've never known anybody who didn't show up on schedule.

Axel had never heard of such an arrangement. His theory was that it is just so practical that it could only have been invented in Canada and more importantly, that it would only work in Canada. Casual polling of friends from other countries seemed to indicate that they had never heard of it either, but most of the people I’ve talked to about it so far have been fine upstanding citizens who spent their formative years in less erm, colourful company than I was doing.

So I put the question the source of all wisdom; my Livejournal friends list. Have you heard of this practice in your country?

Comments

[xthlcm.livejournal.com]

Yes. It exists in the US, but not in every state and, as in Canada, only for certain non-violent crimes.

I've only heard of it being used for DUI, personally. I think the Federal mandatory minimum sentence laws prevent it from being used for drug crimes.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I expect there are other crimes it's used for but I have no idea what they are. Personally I would think it hilarious (and kinda cool) if we had stricter sentancing laws for driving drunk than for selling pot.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

My memory is hazy, and the excellent backup memory I used to have died a few weeks ago. Fuck, a month ago now. Anyway.

We knew this guy who got busted driving drunk. He got time on weekends in the provincial jail nearest his home. Also, he lived in Bracebridge and was the town clerk of Huntsville, and his parents (who lived in Gravenhurst) had to pick him up and drive him to work the whole time he had no driver's license. (I might have it wrong which town was which. But anyway, it was a significant burden on him and his parents to have no license for a while. And I was amused that while his parents were willing to drive him, he still didn't move in with them.)

[tamago23.livejournal.com]

Personally I would think it hilarious (and kinda cool) if we had stricter sentancing laws for driving drunk than for selling pot.

Why would it be hilarious? Selling pot doesn't kill people. Driving drunk does, on a regular basis. (Hell, a 9-year-old cousin of Frolic's was killed by a drunk driver. My 16-year-old cousin ended up with permanent and serious brain damage after a drunk driver hit him while he was on his bike. My BFF and I had a drunk driver plow into the side of our car and spin it three times when I was 18; luckily neither of us were badly hurt, but we could easily have been.) It makes complete sense that DUI would have a harsher punishment than selling pot, since it's a far more dangerous crime.

(FWIW, I still don't think it's serious enough. I'd love to see anyone caught doing a DUI having proper jail time - at least a month for the first offense, and rising exponentially after that.)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Hilarious in a "Ha-ha, we win at logic" kind of way.

[tamago23.livejournal.com]

Ah, got it. :)

[ashbet]

Yes, I've heard of it (usually for small/first offenses), although I've only generally seen it offered to people with children in their care.

-- A <3

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard of it (I get a sort of hazy 'that rings a bell' feeling about it), but then, I've also both known of and been to Napanee and had no idea that Avril Lavigne was from there, so apparently I'm all about knowing the unexpected.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Yep. Pretty sure we have weekend detention in Australia for low level crimes. Not sure about dealing, but white collar stuff, or for people at the end of their time in The Big House where it can be used for rehab back into society.

Never seen it enacted though.

Here's a place designed for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_Detention_Centre_(Symonston)

[dali-muse.livejournal.com]

This is another example of Canadian superiority!

I have never heard of this, but then again, I've been working like crazy for the past 20 years and not paying much attention.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

In 1913, Wisconsin enacted a similar kind of thing for daily release: prisoners would be let out in the early morning on work days, go do their jobs and head back to a special facility in the evening. It worked really well until the last 20 years or so when "get tough on crime" politicians started adding the requirement of the prisoners to return to the facility at mid-shift for check-in/required meal (ruining employment that presumed only the minimum required by law lunch break of 30 minutes 'caue who can commute both ways to jail in 30 minutes?), and budgetary shenanigans looking at the Huber Law facilities as privileged incarceration and thus potential revenue centers (thus destroying the incentive for lower-income wage-earners to stay in the Huber program version regular jail, where a prisoner is NOT charged for room and board).

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Our current federal government *spit* is campaigning on some tough-on-crime trope. I'm assuming it's a diversionary tactic.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Probably. Or at least stupid on some level.

If I can interject a little personal philosophy here, there's very, very few perpetrators of crime pay any attention to the penalties associated with the crime itself. Either they're caught up in the moment ("crime of opportunity", "crime of passion"), or they simply never think they're going to get caught. There's thresholds of "some punishment, but no jail time" and "some jail time", and between "some jail time" and "a LOT of jail time" that might be considered briefly when deciding whether or not to do something, but the difference be deterrence between two years of jail time and five years of jail time is inconsiderable, any more than people really consider "Hey, I'm only going to go for this BA instead of the MA, because then I'll be able to start working two years sooner." So, the only "get tough on crime" direction that actually works isn't "ramp up punishments more" but instead actually punish more people for committing their personal sin, and then get them out of the system as fast as reasonably possible,

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure there are actual numbers out there that severity of punishment has less of an impact on crime than the chance of getting caught.

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

I have heard of it in *your* country, yes- but it would be far too a practical option over here.
They do their best to make you unemployed here just because you are ill let alone a criminal!

[girfan.livejournal.com]

A friend in the US got done for drunk driving and the punishment was to get your license taken away for a period of time. He worked in a town but lived on a farm about 10 miles out of town (and there was no public transport). He was allowed to drive to work at 7am every weekday and home at 7pm (they allowed him a bit extra so he could get his groceries/do banking/any other errands before having to be at home) but he couldn't drive anywhere on the weekends or holidays. This lasted a year.

Due to the rural area, and lack of transport, the local judges felt this was punishment enough. I think it would have been worse if he had damaged property or a person when driving drunk.

Otherwise, never heard of weekend jail in the US>

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Work release. Except usually here, they go back to jail every evening after work, rather than just on the weekends. I think. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but I know it exists. Some of the folks wear GPS ankle bracelets, some don't.

The big difference is, some of the people aren't as faithful to sticking to the program as the Canadians are.

And then there is the community service option, where the person doesn't go to jail at all, but in their time when they aren't at work, they do things like pick up trash along the highways, work in soup kitchens, etc. We had one at the library for awhile who helped us sort and carry books.

In my opinion, everyone who was convicted of a nonviolent, and especially any victimless, crime should be given this treatment rather than put in jail and just costing taxpayers money. Instead, huge numbers of people who are caught with a joint get to spend time in jail.

[raindrops.livejournal.com]

Or, we could stop criminalizing behaviour based on obsolete ideals of One Morality To Rule Them All. But that would make too much sense.

In CA, and especially here in the Bay Area, pot is a non-issue unless you're caught with a massive amount. Personal use is generally ignored.

We used to have "honour farms" in CA, which were essentially super-minimum-security facilities. A few guards, no real walls: just standard farm fencing. Don't think we have those anymore though... again, too good of an idea. Because outsourced prisons are big business, there is intense lobbying to make sure we incarcerate as many people as possible.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I cannot see why it should be anyone's business what a person ingests, so long as they aren't endangering other folks while doing it. Legalizing drugs would empty prisons of a lot of people who never hurt anyone, easing the tax load or allowing the money to go to things that are a hell of a lot more important, like schools and medical care. But the prison industry isn't about to allow that!

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but it sounds like the sort of thing the Scandinavians would do as well.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

If it's anything to go by, when the journalist in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (set in Sweden) is convicted of libel & given a three month sentence, he goes back to his normal life and doesn't serve his sentence till several months later.

[silentq.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't think I've ever heard of this practice before.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I've not heard of it, but I don't have THAT many friends that have been THAT deep into the criminal justice system. Community service is the most that any of my friends have typically ended up with.

But I really like and support any concept that allows people to serve their debt to society without destroying their lives.

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

Switzerland has a similar thing they call open prison. It was really common for those who refused to participate in Switzerland's mandatory military service to spend part of their 20s in open prison while still working and/or attending school. I guess they figured interrupting the education and early career of young people isn't really going to make them better citizens.

Actually, I just googled and the CO rules were changed in 1996 to allow for civil service. Still, it was interesting to meet people who's "address" was a jail.

[spikella.livejournal.com]

I am sad to say I know this does (or at least did) exist in the state of Wisconsin because Jeffrey Dahmer was given a conditional weekend sentence for 3 years for drugging and raping a 15 year old boy.

He later murdered the boy's 14 year old brother. (unbeknownst to the connection)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. I think that falls pretty solidly outside of the category of "non-violent crime".

[elixxir.livejournal.com]

My dad served his sentence for a DUI conviction on the weekends. Ah, familial pride. :p

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

How long ago was that? I know the attitude towards DUI has changed a lot over the years.

[elixxir.livejournal.com]

When I was a teenager, around 16 or 17 I believe. So. You know. Only a few years ago :p