Category: sentencing
-
Seems Like Everything Is Sophisticated These Days, Huh? The sophisticated means enhancement is one of the most overused enhancements applied by U.S. Attorney’s office across the United States. Looking at white collar charges time and time again, it looks as though federal prosecutors try to slap a sophisticated means enhancement on anything that’s a white…
-
Haven’t We Seen This Before? It’s official. The United States courts are being affected by the government shutdown. It will be just like it was in 2018. The resolution of many civil matters are being delayed, and probation is seeing clients via zoom call and phone appointments. All of these government offices are seeing reduced…
-
Addressing One Rumor At A Time Every year, the United States Sentencing Commission makes amendments to the United States Sentencing Guidelines, and every years those amendments take effect on November 1st. Throughout the federal prison system, a rumor mill lovingly referred to as Inmate.com churns out information without a reliable source that adds endless confusion…
-
Sentencing Guidelines Bring Massive Changes To Supervised Release On November 1st, 2025, massive changes to supervised release will take effect. The United States Sentencing Commission released a new amendment that will eliminate mandatory supervised release for federal prison sentences. If the judge feels that the defendant needs a term of supervised release to meet the…
-
Evidence Has Shown For a Decade That Longer Sentences Don’t Reduce Crime On Monday Lisa Legal moved this story about new legislation proposed in Congress to combat crime in Washington DC. The world has seen that President Trump has moved the National Guard into our nation’s capital, and 4 other United States cities to help…
-
Guideline Amendments Disappoint Federal Prison Inmates Inmates in Federal Prison look forward to the United States Sentencing Commission’s annual guideline amendments. This year was especially hopeful as there was a proposed amendment eliminated the disparity between methamphetamine mix and pure methamphetamine as well as an amendment that would eliminate the ability to look at state…
-
What Can You Do If Your Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) Is Incorrect? As a defendant in federal court facing a federal prison sentence, you have a right to dispute or challenge what probation officers place on your pre-sentence report. A lot of people don’t understand the consequences of what’s written, or recognize it too late. We’ve…
-
Asking For Your Prison Of Choice Might Not Get You Where You Want When you’re being sentenced, most clients and defendants want to be prepared to make their preference known to the judge. They want to spend hours researching different prisons to make the best choice for the next several years in their life. The…
-
3 Federal Prison Tips Clients We Helped Minimize Their Federal Prison Sentence without snitching Now that you’ve been charged with a federal crime the first thing you’re thinking about is minimizing your exposure, minimizing your time in federal prison. We take calls all the time from clients and potential clients who have attorneys tell them…
-
What’s A Strong Personal Narrative Worth? First of all, there’s no reason to pay someone $7,000 – $10,000 to do your personal narrative. You could write this on your own. What you want to include is your life story in an abbreviated format. Include, for example, what possibly made you commit your crime, what you’ve…
-
Where Do You Go With A Designation To An FMC? When you get your federal prison designation, if you are sent to an FMC, or Federal Medical Center, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to the hospital in federal prison. Most of the federal medical centers around the country run by the Bureau of Prisons…
-
Are Judge’s Choices In Accepting Recommendations Limited? When you’re in federal court facing time in federal prison, is it possible for your judge to go below a jointly recommended sentence from the U.S. attorney and your defense attorney? This question comes from an ongoing discussion in our Facebook Group, which is also called Federal Prison…
-
“Ineffective Assistance” Is a Favorite of Jailhouse Lawyers But Is It Really Effective? If you’re in Federal Prison reading this (we won’t report you like others) but you’re probably considering “ineffective assistance of counsel” or a 2255, but is that really effective? According to the latest Justice Department data and a search of real time…
-
Acquitted Conduct Amendment Takes Effect November 1st, Many Don’t Understand What It is. After President Joe Biden took office he sat the first complete United States Sentencing Commission in over 7 years. During the preceeding 7 years, although the guideline manuals were continuously published, no significant changes had occured until 2022. In 2022 after the…