I would bet good money that you will not go to jail, no. Are you in America or Canada? I don't know d**k about our good neighbors to the North, or their legal system, but here believe it or not, it takes a little bit of work to get thrown into jail (and even more work to get thrown into prison) here in America. I mean, unless of course you just do something massively bad one day, like rob a bank, and get caught. But that's highly unusual. Anyway, no you shouldn't have to go anywhere. I've got buddies who have been in almost constant small scrapes with the law like this, many times, and have not done a day in jail. Wasted alot of money on lawyers , but stayed out of jail at least. The jails here are hugely overcrowded. There's no way you're going into one for stealing 50 bucks worth of stuff one night. It's not worth what it would cost whatever county you're in to clothe and feed you, you see?? It takes alot, like I said. My first cousin for instance. Busted two yrs ago selling X to minors (what a moron) in an underage dance club. He sold more than 15 pills (which now makes it a Class X felony here in IL) to a narc at the club. So they treat that now the same way they would treat a guy who's standing around peddling crack near a schoolyard. Class X drug offense. HE didn't even end up doing any serious time. He drew 6 months "boot camp", which he served successfully and some parole which he's already off of. So, I'd say for shoplifting 50 bucks' worth, you won't be doing hard time.