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Should we care that Cameron Douglas, though sentenced to 5 years in prison, will likely be out in 2012?

By Douglas A. Berman

I had a wonderful discussion with my sentencing class this morning about the realities of the Cameron Douglas sentencing and his forthcoming prison term.  We discussed the legal reality that, because parole was eliminated from the federal sentencing system via the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the 5-year prison term he was give yesterday (basics here) "really meant" he was subject to being incarcerated for half a decade.  But then we got into the practical realities of calculating his "real" time, and we discovered that he might be out of federal prison as early as 2012.  Here's why: 1.  Cameron Douglas was given credit yesterday for the 8 months he has already served pending sentencing, so his 60-month sentence already has only 52 months left...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 21, 2010 (boomark / email).