I'm turning myself in la county jail on 3/7/12 on a 30 day sentence for 2nd DUI. How much time will I actually have to do?

Worst case scenario, you'll do half that or 15 days. Best case scenario, you're basically booked and released the same day. It all depends on available jail space. I can say that typically, you serve far less than the half time you're entitled to.

LA County jail is severely overcrowded. There is a chance you might only do a few days.

Not speaking from experience but I feel that five minutes is even too long to be locked up in LACO jail... Can't you look into some sort of alternative work program even if it's the full 30 days! Those are not your new best friends in there... Perhaps attorney's from LA can tell you that I'm full of crap, that it's a cakewalk! ...but I would be very surprised. I know that these attorneys would not want their clients or family in there for 15 days, maybe if it in-and-out in 1 hour was 100% assured then maybe ok. I'm guessing you had no attorney, not even a public defender. geo

The old adage was “half time for good time served.” However due to overcrowding, things have changed. As Dylan sang in “Subterranean Homesick Blues" "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." In Los Angeles County, misdemeanor inmates only tend to serve 20 per cent of their sentence - although inmates sentenced to 90 days or less are processed and released immediately. See California Penal Code section 4019, which set forth the prisoner time credits. Subsection 4019 (f) provides the following: "It is the intent of the Legislature that if all days are earned under this section, a term of six days will be deemed to have been served for every four days spent in actual custody." This is 1/3 to the math impaired. However, as stated above, the law has smacked into the windshield of reality. I have had clients take the prison time rather than the fine, and in every case they have been immediately released or released within a day. No fine, no time. I will reserve comment on the shortcomings of our system of justice. Amen. With respect to legal advice, you're going in and that is that. You do not need a attorney to tell you how to do your time. Any time less than the sentence imposed is a gift. Obey the guards, keep to yourself, and follow the rules.