Category: Sentencing Guidelines
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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…
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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…
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About Compassionate Release 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(1)(A) Compassionate release is codified in law at 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(1)(A) and described in section 1B1.13 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. It’s a set of rules which provides inmates an avenue to file a motion seeking a change in their sentence from their sentencing judge based on a prescribed…
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Formal Downward Departures Vanish In November Now, it’s more important than ever to make sure you have a good criminal defense attorney if you’re facing federal court and prison time as a defendant. In 2025, the United States Sentencing Guidelines will implement the Sentencing Commission’s changes for this year’s amendment cycle. One of those changes,…
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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…
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It Starts With The Plea Agreement When you get your plea agreement, it will most likely come with a two-point downward variance for acceptance of responsibility for your crimes. You will then be eligible for a third point at sentencing. Those two points will be explicitly provided as per the terms of the plea agreement,…
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In Fact, The Biggest Changes In 30 Years Among the big changes coming from this year’s cycle of guideline amendments, the ones affecting supervised release are some of the biggest. The message being sent by these particular changes is that supervised release will now be about rehabilitation, not punishment. Beginning November 1st, being sentenced to…
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U.S. Sentencing Guidelines And The ACCA You may remember earlier this year when the United States Sentencing Commission proposed two key amendments. The first affected the armed career criminal enhancement and whether or not they could use state offenses as a predicate to either this enhancement or the 851 enhancement. The other proposed amendment dealt…
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The 2025-2026 Sentencing Guidelines Amendments Could Be Huge Big changes could be coming to how federal sentences are decided. Here’s what the United States Sentencing Commission has in store or planned for the 2025-2026 sentencing guideline amendment cycle. Now, if you’re in federal prison or have a loved one in federal prison, you probably already…
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Guidelines Amendments That Could Make Waves Most people think cutting your time after a federal prison sentence means you have to “snitch,” either providing information that leads to an arrest, testifying in court, or both. And, for years, a sentence reduction pursuant to 5K1.1 meant exactly that. But, there is a sentencing guideline amendment proposed…
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Seen here and in the video above is the sentencing guideline table. If you’re headed to federal prison or just recently got indicted in the federal court, it’s important to know that the sentencing guideline table is not what determines the security level of the institution in which you’ll be incarcerated. This only determines how…
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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…
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What Happened With The Sentencing Commission Amendment Regarding Methampetamines? Circulating rumors concerning a change in how pure vs. mixed methamphetamine, or “ice” is charged are unfortunately untrue, but this wasn’t exactly fake news, either. There was a proposed amendment to the United States Sentencing Guidelines earlier this year. The proposed amendment called for eliminating the…
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Is it possible to get a public safety factor removed when you’re in federal prison? This is a question we get often. There’s nuances to this question. Was it added by your case management team by mistake? If so, then yeah, sometimes paperwork can be pushed and it can be removed. For instance, we had…
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Public Comments Open On 2025 Sentencing Amendments Until March 18, 2025 here Every year the United Sates Sentencing Commission proposes new sentencing guideline amendments. Those amendments follow the same calendar schedule, every year. The amendments are proposed in January/February. The public can comment until March. The amendments are voted on in May. Retroactivity is voted…