Or: Concurrently versus Consecutively.
I was prompted to write this article after a news article headline caused some confusion. The headline stated that a woman who was convicted of trafficking of persons will spend 10 years in prison.
The body of the article proceeded to state that the woman was sentenced to total of 15 years in prison. She sentenced on two separate charges: 10 years for trafficking a minor and 5 years for trafficking an adult. So she was sentenced to a total of 15 years.
Here’s the deal: the 10 years and 5 years sentences will run “concurrently.” That means, they will run “together.” In other words, while she is serving time for the 10 year sentence, she is also serving time for the 5 years. In the first 5 years in prison, she will have finished the 5 year sentence AS WELL AS 5 years of the 10-year sentence.
Concurrently=together.
What’s the oppositive of concurrently? Consecutively. If the sentences were to be run “consecutively” that means they were to be run one after the other. In other words, she would have to serve ten years, then serve an additional 5 years, making her stay in prison a total of 15 years.
So, if you read that someone is sentenced on two or more charges, read further to see if the sentences will run “consecutively” or “concurrently.”
