Sometimes you read that a criminal gets 20 years in prison, but people say “Oh he will be out in 10”. How does that work? Good behavior can not cut 10 years of a sentence, can it?
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1. The sentence is the maximum time the person can serve in prison. As long as they don’t commit any crimes in prison, they will only serve that time max.
2. Every few years a prisoner has the opportunity to defend themselves before a group of people called a “parole board.” If they can prove that they have received enough punishment to change them around, the parole board will recommend to the courts that they are safe to release back into society.
3. Due to the cost burden of holding so many prisoners, there is a need to be (relatively) lenient to a lot of folks applying for parole. So it’s easier than one might think, depending on the prisoner.
Tl;Dr
Prisoners will get released early very frequently because the prison system is so full that it requires parole boards to release people with increasing leniency. When people say “good behavior” they mean behavior relevant to a parole board.
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