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Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#201

To put this into its proper perspective, see table 7 here: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-pu... In 2022, the average murderer in the Federal Southern District of New York (N = 58) was sentenced to a median of 231 months, which comes out to 19 years and change. No crime of any type had an mean or median sentence higher than 25 years; most were far less than half. So it should be really hard…

You're comparing to medians; is this a median crime?

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#202
post #192

I don’t think there is any crime whatsoever that imprisoning someone for more than ten years would be reasonable or productive. If jailing someone for a decade doesn’t do it, nothing will. It seems purely vindictive at some point. The justice system should not be vindictive.

Either the justice system is at least a little vindictive, or the survivors of the crime will become so much more vindictive

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#203
post #62

I think that's about fair and reasonable. It's been said in Europe he would not have gotten more than years and it's probably true. 25 years is a really long time and even if he does only 20, still super long. Here's a live tweeting of the sentencing hearing; some of Judge Kaplan's remarks are really interesting. https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/177334004374401064...

Tbh, a bunch of American (high profile) lawyers had estimated that he'd only get a couple of years, max, as he had no prior convictions - and the nature of the case.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#205
post #2

Seems low for what prosecutors consider "one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history." https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-bankman-fried-be-sent...

If someone isn't a violent threat to society, there isn't much social benefit to keeping folks locked up longer then 20-ish years. 20-25 (assuming he gets the 15% off for good behavior the feds allow) is plenty.

Every $10 million in financial crime should be punished as severely as murder. It is equivalent in terms of the harms caused.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#206

SBF is 32 years old - 25 years isn't a death sentence for him Parole is available after 1/3 of term, realistically he won't serve 100% There's still a chance for him to get something out of his life post jail

> Parole is available after 1/3 of term

IIRC it's 85%. Federal prison does not have parole, but they do give some credit for good behavior, up to 15%.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Federal prisoners serve an average of 85% of their sentence. One year gets you 54 days "good conduct time" and that's about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_conduct_time

Wouldn't that make 85% the minimum, not the average?

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-bri... says 2012's average was 88%, so the two are quite close. I don't know how much it varies from year to year, but it would seem most are earning their good behavior time.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#209

SBF is 32 years old - 25 years isn't a death sentence for him Parole is available after 1/3 of term, realistically he won't serve 100% There's still a chance for him to get something out of his life post jail

IIRC it was federal, where you need to do 2/3, no?

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

#210
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone isn't a violent threat to society, there isn't much social benefit to keeping folks locked up longer then 20-ish years. 20-25 (assuming he gets the 15% off for good behavior the feds allow) is plenty.

I have to ask: does 20 years provide more social benefit than 10? 5? Surely there's diminishing returns on imprisonment. As a deterrent and as a punitive, I get it, but even life sentences don't seem to deter crimes that can yield those punishments.

This presumes a theory of justice where "social benefit" is relevant at all — not everyone accepts this.
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