> I was sitting there innocently listening to the news on TV and they were telling about someone who called in a bomb threat to a high school. Naturally, they emptied the place in short order and a search failed to find a bomb. They reported that police were now search for the hoaxer (Is that word OK?) and said that when he was caught he could get up to 3 to 6 years. WHOA!
> Is it up to three or up to six? If it's up to six, what is the three doing in there? Or did they mean max 6 and min 3? Is there no possibility of a one or two year sentence? I must be careful not to watch the news for a few days. I'm confused enough already.
>

Usually when they say something like "up to 3-6 years" they mean that the maximum sentence is 6 years, of which 3 must be served before the convict is eligible for parole. If he gets less than 6 years, he'll have to serve half of whatever time he gets before he can get out on parole.

Nobody ever gets the maximum sentence. People always see that as a sign that the criminal justice system is going soft on criminals, but actually the maximum sentence is only intended for the worst possible case of a particular crime. You can imagine assault-with-a-weapons of different "badness", and in order to get the maximum (10 years in Canada) you have to commit pretty much the worst possible assault-with-a-weapon that the judge can imagine. If you can think of something worse that the accused might have done, he won't serve the max.

Hope that clears it up.

^v^:)^v^
FB