Right, let's keep this short and to the point.
There has been some confusion about what has happened to the Vagos and why it led to life imprisonment for everyone.In the past there have been life sentences issued to gangs, groups or individuals that had pushed their luck in roleplay to the point of obtaining a virtual wanted level that could only be met with a life sentence.
This would be inline with rule G5.6 Wanted level.
To make things perfectly clear: This situation IS NOTHING LIKE THAT. The reasoning for the sentence was completely based on OOC events. This is why it might have seemed out of place and confusing within roleplay.
The decision to issue the life sentence was based on a few factors. A pattern of bad roleplay and consistent rulebreaks became increasingly apparent and moreover, over the last few months there has been an increasing amount of bans and warnings issued to members of the Vagos.
In total the 29 members of the Vagos Gang have already gathered up a collection of 20 bans and 25 warnings, with potentially more to still follow from outstanding reports etc.
Another large contributing factor was the leader getting banned and the lack of a suitable replacement with a clean record who could take the spot of a whitelisted gang leader. Adding to that there was an increasing amount of suspicion that there were more members duping and exploiting. These suspicions were confirmed a few nights ago when roughly a third of vagos were caught in the act.
Previously in situations like this the protocol would have been a blanket permanent ban of all members in the gang and then an investigation to figure out who is innocent and can be unbanned. This would allow for the Management, Staff & Development teams to essentially freeze all the assets in the meantime.
Luckily with FiveM, we have the ability to go down this route of a life sentence thereby only freezing one character. This allows people to continue roleplaying on other characters or even the same character, albeit under somewhat forced circumstances.
Lastly, Though it is called a life sentence. It does not need to be the end for your characters. There are possibilities for you to get out of prison (bear in mind escape is not one of them). There will be court appeals possible at a later date, however not everyone will be awarded the opportunity to appeal. It will be awarded to those that prove themselves in roleplay in the prison. Ban / Warnings records will also play some part in the decisions.
I know it isn't an ideal scenario roleplay-wise as some of the characters may not deserve to be in prison in roleplay. Be creative in filling up the gaps, it will go a long way in your case.
