When a court imposes a jail sentence, a defendant may have to serve some, all, or no portion of that sentence in jail.  This is because there is a difference between active time and suspended time with respect to jail sentences.  The differences are explained below.

Active jail time – the portion of the sentence the defendant will serve in jail.

If a judge sentences a defendant to jail time, it does not necessarily mean the defendant will serve all of that time in jail.  A portion, or even all, of that time may be suspended by the court.  Active time is the portion of a jail sentence that has not been suspended, and so the defendant will serve that amount of time in jail.

You can calculate the amount of active time in a jail sentence by subtracting the number of days that are suspended from the total number of days of jail time that were ordered. (Total number of days in jail that were ordered – number of days that are suspended = amount of active time to be served in jail.)

Examples of this calculation are provided below:

• If a judge ordered a defendant to 10 days of jail time, with all 10 days suspended, then no active jail time was ordered by the court (because all 10 of those days were suspended), and so the defendant would not have to serve any time in jail.
• If a judge ordered 10 days of jail time, with 9 days suspended, then only 1 day of active jail time was ordered (because 9 of those days were suspended), and so the defendant would serve 1 day in jail.

However, there is a chance that suspended time could be converted into active jail time in certain cases, and more information is provided below.

Suspended jail time – the portion of the jail sentence the defendant will not have to serve in jail.

It is important to note that with a suspended jail sentence, usually the defendant must keep the peace and remain of good behavior for a certain period of time after the sentence is imposed.  If the defendant violates this condition during that time period, the Court has the ability to order the defendant to serve some, or all, of the jail time that originally was suspended by the Court.

Here are examples of what a jail sentence with suspended time looks like, and how suspended time could be converted into active time for that jail sentence:

• 10 days in jail / with 10 days suspended / for one year – this means that the defendant will not have to serve any active jail time for this sentence if the defendant keeps the peace and remains of good behavior for the next year; but if the defendant violates that condition before one year has passed, then the court may order the defendant to serve up to 10 days of active jail time for this sentence.
• 10 days in jail / with 9 days suspended / for one year – this means the defendant will serve 1 day of active jail time for this sentence and will not serve the remaining 9 days which were suspended if the defendant keeps the peace and remains of good behavior for the next year; but if the defendant violates that condition before one year has passed, then the court could order the defendant to serve up to 9 additional days of active jail time for this sentence.