When you’re convicted, or if you were to be convicted of any crime of domestic violence, there is a standard sentence that would be imposed. It would be either some period of jail (whether it be short or long) and an unsuspended portion while you’re on a period of probation for 2 years.
For example, you might get (in a very minor case) 48 hours of jailtime and you have a suspended sentence of 180 days, which means that while you are on probation for 2 years, if you don’t follow what you are supposed to do while you’re on probation, you could end up going back to jail for 180 days. So it’s not necessarily the front end that you have to be concerned about, it’s the back end.
Then what has to happen is if you are a male and you’ve been convicted of domestic violence, you’re going to go to Violence No More, which is a certified batterers intervention program. It’s 48 weeks, you have to pay for it, it’s required, and it’s a very difficult process to have to sit through, especially if you went unrepresented and pled guilty because it was easier or maybe you didn’t have the financial wear withal to retain an attorney, and you actually thought you were innocent. And now you have to sit there and every day once a week say that you’re a batterer. It’s a demeaning and a humiliating process for people to go through.
