The moment a sentence is handed down, everything changes. Families who were focused on the trial or plea negotiations suddenly have a new set of urgent questions about what the sentence actually means in practice. How long will they actually serve? What facility will they go to? What is the difference between the sentence imposed and the time served? This section covers how federal and state sentencing guidelines work, what mandatory minimums mean and when they apply, how good time credits are calculated from the moment of sentencing, how the Bureau of Prisons designates a facility and whether families can influence that decision, what a split sentence means, and what the difference is between concurrent and consecutive sentences when multiple charges are involved. The guidance here translates the courtroom language into plain answers about what happens next. See also our sections on Sentence Reduction, Inmate Transfer, and General Prison Questions and Terminology.
Subject: Sentencing questions
Robbery is a serious charge. If this is something that she is unaware of, she should immediately be asking her attorney BEFORE entering a plea. Robbery can carry a double-digit year sentence so this needs to be handled properly.
Subject: Sentencing questions
Typically, the prosecution is in no rush for probation violations seeking a court date. The normal rule of thumb from the prosecutor's perspective is a violator is highly likely to receive jail time. With that knowledge, they are not in a hurry to give a definite date - he will be given "time-served" for his current stay.
Subject: Sentencing questions
This is a serious charge that carries a heavy penalty. Since he has a criminal history and was already incarcerated it is our opinion that the least he will get is 30 years and it's likely he could get life.
Subject: Sentencing questions
The sentencing phase is based on a point system set up by the legislature that writes the laws. The higher the points, the longer the sentence. The judge has discretion to determine the sentence, there are a few factors with which to base their determination: criminal conduct history; was the offender the main actor in the crime;
were there victims that were injured or killed; were there aggravating circumstances when an offender was particularly cruel to a victim -...
Read moreSubject: Sentencing questions
85% of 16 months is 13.6 months. If he has 6 months in, then he has 7.6 months left to serve
Subject: Sentencing questions
In California, most inmates are required to serve 85 percent of their imposed sentence before becoming eligible for release. On a 16 month sentence that works out to approximately 13 and a half months of actual time served.
California moved to the 85 percent rule for most offenses as part of truth in sentencing reforms that eliminated the possibility of serving just half a sentence on many charges. The days of doing a third or half of your time and walking...
Read moreSubject: Sentencing questions
Release dates are not available in all instances. If federal you can look on the bop.gov website where it is posted. If it is a state sentience, some of them have the information posted on the state DOC website. If you call the facility and ask to speak to the inamte's counselor or case manager, you might get their release date.
Subject: Sentencing questions
The general rule from the prosecution's position is they are not happy having to try any case, no matter the county or state. They want you to plead guilty and take what they offer which keeps their docket clean and they may remain lazy. If you want to fight back, they will fight dirty and if you lose they will try and get you the harshest sentence possible. A guilty verdict will most probably come with some state prison time....
Read moreSubject: Sentencing questions
A 10 serve 2 sentence means the judge imposed a 10-year sentence but built in a mandatory minimum of 2 years that must be served before any parole consideration kicks in. It is a structure used in some state systems that gives the court a way to impose a longer sentence as a ceiling while setting a floor that guarantees some minimum time is served, regardless of behavior or parole board decisions.
For a first-time offender on a shoplifting charge, a...
Read moreSubject: Sentencing questions
The federal judge in this case has a guideline that they must go by. The factors are criminal history, level of violence, money involved and the basic points of the crime. Once they have a range, it is entirely up to the judge. The prosecutor will make their recommendation, if your daughter is pleading to a charge that was negotiated, then she will know what they are suggesting. They have already told her that they can only recommend the sentence,...
Read moreSubject: Sentencing questions
Inmates relegated to the SHU are sent there to segregate them from the general population for investigation of an incident or for punishment of a new charge. There is no set time that anyone on the outside could ever find out. This is all handled internally by the upper level management from the warden, to the associate warden to their captain and lieutenants. There is NOTHING anyone on the outside can do during this process, there are no legal representations...
Read moreSubject: Sentencing questions
For federal sentences, the date posted on the federal website bop.gov is the release date of record. This date includes the 15% good time credit that is factored in on the day you arrive. The only change to this date happens if you do something unwise (incident reports requiring punishment) where they take days or weeks away from this privilege, OR you have completed the RDAP program, which will affect the out date by up to 12 months OFF the...
Read moreSubject: Sentencing questions
The actual determination of being sent back to jail or not lis with the judge who presided over the original case. This is where the word of the probation officer has little weight. They are not the final decision maker. They may very well said, "I'll recommend to the judge to please defer sentencing in lieu of enrollment to a rehab center." The judge can take the recommendation or not. In this case, maybe there was something bothering the judge...
Read moreSubject: Sentencing questions
That would be up to the original and most recent judge presiding over the case. Most parole/probation violations are sent back to complete the original sentence. The offender was given some leniency and had time taken off their sentence. Going in front of the judge that gave him a second chance does not turn out well in most cases.
Subject: Sentencing questions
Depending on the prison system that your inmate is in, the typical offender serves 85% of the time imposed. This 15% represents "good time" credited when the sentence begins. Assuming that the inmate has all of their good time intact, 85% of 480 months is 408 months of which 360 have been served. That leaves 48 months or exactly four years left to be served.
