User:My space law
Space Law
On Space Station 14, stations operate under abbreviated space law. All crew, passengers, and visitors aboard the station are expected to know and follow these laws (they are fairly common sense, only security and the captain need to know the times).
Treatment Of Prisoners
Prisoners still have certain rights that must be upheld by law enforcement:
- Prisoners must be granted adequate medical care.
- Prisoners must be allowed access to communications equipment (Radios) so long as they are not abused.
- Prisoners must be granted clothing, food, water, shelter and safety. If the brig is no longer safe, confinement must be established in another location.
- Prisoners must be given access to legal counsel during an interrogation if requested and available.
- Prisoners must be given their shift mandated PDA after confinement has finished. Unless there is solid proof of PDA tampering, in which case the PDA is to be secured and replaced with a fresh one.
- Prisoners must be granted freedom of movement, and should not be restrained with handcuffs or other devices after incarceration unless there is an undue risk to life and limb. Similarly, any prisoners held for permanent confinement should be held in the communal brig, and should not be confined to a solitary cell unless they pose a risk to life and limb.
Search and Seizure
A personnel search is a seizure of the objects in a person's backpack, hands, coat, belt, and pockets. If any contraband is found during a search, the officer may choose to further the search into a detainment or simply confiscate the restricted items. After the search is conducted, all legal items are to be returned to the person. A crewmate may legally decline any search conducted without probable cause or a warrant while the alert level is green. It should be noted that if the alert level is blue or above, all personnel searches are legal.
A departmental search is the sweep of an entire area or department for contraband. It is recommended that the officers be extremely thorough, checking all lockers, crates, and doors. These can only be done with permission and, ideally, a warrant signed by the department head or highest-ranking command staff (the captain in most cases).
Implantation
Any prisoner in custody can be subjected to implantation or implant removal procedures, so long as it's within reason. The process of adding an implant should not prolong the detainees sentence, meaning you can not hold them longer to administer the implant, unless stated otherwise. A former inmate can be requested to undergo implantation at a later point in time if they fit the circumstances during their confinement, they must comply. The following have been listed out with special circumstances, anything not in this list can still be applied, given proper legal context. A prisoner can still receive implantation procedures without meeting the circumstances if they give their clear permission.
Tracking Implants: Trackers can be applied to any suspect that has been convicted of a violent crime (the red linked crimes).
Mind Shields: Shields can be administered to any inmate who has been clearly mind controlled, lost control of themselves, or a suspect charged with unlawful control. Unlike standard implantation you may hold a prisoner until you finish issuing Mind Shields, so long as it's done in a timely fashion. If a suspect refuses cooperate or the implant fails to function they can be charged with Refusal of Mental Shielding. Linked crimes are shown in matching colors, and usually on the same row.
Removal
A suspect can be forced to receive implant removal if there is strong, reasonable proof that they have been implanted, such as an officer seeing them use one or their prints being on a discarded injector. Unlike the implantation procedure, a prisoner can have their sentence entirely delayed or extended until they comply with the procedure, as long as security is actively making attempts to perform it. Akin to implanting, if an inmate gives their clear permission, implant removal can proceed without proof.
Sentencing
Use common sense and humanity when issuing punishments. You should not always seek out the highest punishment you can, you don't have to always give the maximum time or always look to demote someone. Prisoners cooperating and on good behavior should have their sentences reduced. Always take in account the severity and only charge for what is needed for someone to learn their lesson.
Security officers are responsible for ensuring that they only place sentences over X-TBD minutes where space law would allow permanent confinement, informing the Warden whenever possible.
The captain, HOS, and warden are responsible, within reason, for ensuring security officers place appropriate sentences that follow space law. If they are aware of an inappropriate sentence, and if there is not an urgent threat or danger that they must prioritize, then they must correct that sentence. Unreasonable failures, of the captain, HOS, or warden to ensure space law is followed will be heavily scrutinized by Central Command.
There are three categories of crimes; Petty, Disruptive, and Violent. While an inmate may be convicted of multiple crimes at a time, only one sentence of each category may be applied consecutively at the time of detention.
- Violent Crimes are any crime which has or reasonably might result in severe bodily injury or death to one or more of the crew.
- Disruptive Crimes are any crime which inhibits the necessary functioning of the station and its crew. These are major crimes.
- Petty Crimes are any crime which result in damage to station equipment, property, persons, or the public trust, and which are not considered one of the other crime types. These are minor crimes.
Repeat offenders may have their sentence multiplied for each prior convicted occurrence of the same category of crime.
The punishment for crimes is often left up to the processing officer's individual discretion for consideration of unique circumstances surrounding the events of the crime. What follows are sentencing guides for various crimes.
| Offense | Description | Image | Sentencing | Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Possession of Illicit or Unauthorized Items or Chemicals | Holding, or abusing restricted tools, items, equipment, drugs or chemicals without a license. | 1:00 - 3:00, W | 1-01 | |
| Possession of Critical or Sensitive Items without a license. | Holding, or abusing tools, items, or equipment of due import to the station's security or command functions. | 1:00 - 5:00 | 1-02 | |
| Possession of Less-than-Lethal Weapons without a license. | Holding or using a weapon that is unlawful or contraband. | 1:00 - 5:00, W | 1-03 | |
| Possession of Lethal Weapons without a license. | Holding or using a weapon that is unlawful or contraband, and which is likely to cause lethal effect. | 1:00 - 8:00 | 1-04 | |
| Distribution of Illicit or Unauthorized Items or Chemicals. | Making, selling, dispensing, or otherwise knowingly conveying illicit items or chemicals to those who are not authorized to posses them. | 4:00 - 8:00, W, D | 1-05 | |
| Animal Cruelty | inflicting unnecessary suffering or harm on a non-sapient being with malicious intent. | 1:00 - 5:00 | 2-01 | |
| Disturbing the Peace | Causing a public disturbance or otherwise non-violently harming the public. | 1:00 - 4:00 | 2-02 | |
| Vandalism | intentionally defacing or superficially damaging public or private property. | 1:00 - 3:00 | 2-03 | |
| Minor Negligence | Recklessly putting yourself or others in danger, either through direct action, or failure to act, which does not result in death. | 3:00 - 8:00, W, D | 2-04 | |
| Petty Theft | Taking non-vital or inexpensive property of another individual, organization, or common property, without consent. | 1:00 - 5:00, W | 2-05 | |
| Property Damage | Maliciously damaging or defacing public or private property or equipment | 2:00 - 5:00 | 2-06 | |
| Obstruction of Justice | Resisting reasonable orders given by an authority or fleeing arrest or detainment by an authorized staff member. | 4:00 - 8:00 | 2-07 | |
| Trespassing | Entering a locked area without permission. | 1:00 - 5:00, W | 3-01 | |
| Secure Trespassing | Entering a secured area without permission. | 3:00 - 10:00 | 3-02 |
| Major Negligence | Recklessly putting yourself or others in danger, either through direct action, or failure to act, which does result in death. | 6:00 - 12:00, D | 6-01 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Theft | Stealing irreplaceable items or items of due import to the station's security or command functions. | 5:00 - 10:00 | 6-02 | |
| Impersonation | Using an identity other than your own for nefarious purpose. | 4:00 - 8:00, D | 6-03 | |
| Kidnapping | Unlawfully restraining, transporting, controlling or confining a sapient being against that individual’s will. | 8:00 - 12:00, P | 6-04 | |
| Sabotage | Rendering a department no more than 50% inoperable. | 2:00 - 8:00, D | 6-05 | |
| Mass Destruction | Rendering a department more than 50% inoperable. | 8:00 - 12:00, D, P | 6-06 | |
| Escape From Confinement | Breaking out of a cell or custody themselves or others with the intention of escaping. | 20:00, P, X | 6-07 | |
| Refusal of Mental Shielding | Refusal to comply with a reasonable Mind Shielding procedure. | 20:00, P, X | 6-08 |
| Assault/Battery | Threatening to or to using physical force against someone without the intent to kill. | 5:00 - 8:00 | 7-1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manslaughter | Undertaking unreasonable actions likely to result in death or prevention of revival. | 8:00 - 12:00, D | 7-2 | |
| Murder II | killing a sapient being. | 10:00 - 15:00, D | 8-1 | |
| Murder I | killing a sapient being with malicious intent. | 12:00 - 18:00, D, P | 8-2 | |
| Mass Murder | Killing three or more sapient beings with malicious intent. | 15:00 - 20:00, D, P, X | 8-3 | |
| Terrorism | Engaging in maliciously destructive actions which threaten to destroy, or successfully destroy a vessel or habitat. | 20:00, P, X | 9-11 |
Sentencing Appendix: All time ranges are for Confinement in the station Brig. Total Confinement cannot exceed 20:00 for Non-Permanent Confinement. W - A Warning for this crime may be sufficient. D - Demotion from their current position may be warranted. P - Permanent Confinement may be warranted. X - The captain may seriously consider authorizing an execution.
- Confiscation: All goods used to justify a charge of Possession or Distribution charge should be confiscated and stored in a secure location.
- Accessory, Attempting, And Intention: If someone intentionally, knowingly and substantially assists someone in enacting a crime they can be charged with the relevant crimes, such as an engineer giving someone tools, who says they are going to break into an area. Same goes for a clear and solid attempt at a crime, or a person who shows clear intent to act out a crime, such as a syndicate nuclear operative arming a nuke but getting arrested before it goes off, they can still be charged with terrorism.
- Demotion: Entails removing all departmental gear they have on their person and revoking the involved department access off their ID. This requires the captain's or involved department head's approval. Demotions should only be issued if the person pose a threat to their own department or are in a position where they have/can abuse their job's gear to commit further crimes.
- Permanent Confinement: Being held in the permanent brig for the entire duration of the shift. Any persons subject to this punishment are required to be transported in cuffs to CentComm at the end of the shift. A permanent prisoner can not be deprived of anything covered by the section "Treatment Of Prisoners".
- Execution: A humane way of dealing with extremely unruly crewmates. A prisoner who has been given the death sentence may pick how they wish to be killed, common methods are firing line, lethal injection, exile, and high voltage electrocution. Another alternate method of "execution" is the process of placing a staff's mind into a borg, this is allowed so long as it is lawful. Execution can only be issued with the captain/acting captain's approval, if the HoS is acting captain or there is no acting captain, all heads of staff are to hold a vote on the matter. Last rights are to be offered if a chaplain is available, and if possible, a last meal offered to the condemned.
