Legal advice.

Probably one of the most common questions I get asked is am I going to go to jail. Often the person will have no previous history with the police or courts. Just to talk generally there are three types of cases that attract prison sentences. They are serious drug offending, serious dishonesty offending and serious violent offending. The law has for a long time said these types of offending attract what is called deterrent sentencing. In other words the main issue is to make an example of the person to stop him from doing it again or her. It is also done to prevent others from doing the offending by showing what happens to people who do. This is called general deterrence. This means also that a persons individual and personal circumstances are less likely to be taken into account in reducing their sentence. For a person to be eligible for home detention which is a bracelet at home they must be in a position where they are going to receive a sentence of two years imprisonment or less. A guilty plea at first instance attracts a sentence discount of up to a quarter or 25%. 

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