Prison term

A sentence of imprisonment is passed either for a fixed period or for life. A sentence of fixed-term imprisonment is imposed for at least fourteen days and at most twelve years or, when imposing a joint sentence pursuant to Chapter 7, for fifteen years. A court of justice will impose a punishment within the sentence scale set by the legislator for each offence. When imposing a sentence of imprisonment, years, months and days are used as the units of time. Sentences of less than three months are imposed in days. A year includes 365 days and a month 30 days. (Criminal Code, Chapter 2c). In the tables, average prison terms are given in months, except for community service which is also given in hours.