Just about every Federal felony carries behind a term of incarceration a period where one is on a probation like status called supervised release. For all intents and purposes supervised release is just like probation in that you will be monitored by a Federal probation officer, will forego certain rights while on supervision, and will have to meet certain requirements laid out by the Court specific to your case in addition to those general requirements for anyone on supervised release. For the most part as long as you mind your P’s and Q’s you won’t have an issue with a potential violation. Should you slip up, depending on the severity of the slip up, you could receive anywhere from nothing more than a stern coming to Jesus conversation from your Federal Probation Officer all the way up to several more years in a Federal prison. Regardless of your violation, because you were on Federal probation, you need to speak to a Federal violation of supervised release attorney quickly to generate a strategy.
A violation of Federal Supervised release occurs when you commit a new crime or you technically violate your supervised release by dropping a dirty urine, miss a meeting with your Federal probation officer, or some other minor type of conduct that technically violates the terms of your supervised release. As with any criminal offense, the sentencing potential is related to the seriousness of the alleged violation. The severity levels are classified as follows:
Grade A Violations — conduct constituting (A) a federal, state, or local offense punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year that (i) is a crime of violence, (ii) is a controlled substance offense, or (iii) involves possession of a firearm or destructive device of a type described in 26 U.S.C. § 5845(a); or (B) any other federal, state, or local offense punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding twenty years;
Grade B Violations — conduct constituting any other federal, state, or local offense punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year;
Grade C Violations — conduct constituting (A) a federal, state, or local offense punishable by a term of imprisonment of one year or less; or (B) a violation of any other condition of supervision.
For Grade C violations, if your Federal criminal lawyer convinces your probation officer that your violation is minor, and not part of a continuing pattern; and that non-reporting will not present an undue risk to a person or the general public and run afoul of any directive of the court relative to the reporting of violations, you may be able to avoid having your violation reported to a Judge at all. Per United States Sentencing Guideline 7B1.4, if your Grade C violation goes before a Judge and you are found to have in fact violated your supervised release, your sentencing range is anywhere between 3 months up to 14 months depending upon your criminal history category.
For Grade A and Grade B violations, probation is obligated to report a violation of this variety to the Court. If you’ve violated probation in this capacity and such a finding is made, your probation must be revoked and you will face a term of incarceration based upon your grade of violation and criminal history. Unlike a Grade C violation, the potential penalties involved for Grade A and Grade B violations can lead to prison terms up to 63 months depending upon the Grade of violation, criminal history category, and original underlying charge.
Regardless of what you’re on supervised release for or how you’ve violated your Federal supervised release, it is imperative to have an experienced and knowledgeable Federal violation of probation attorney in your corner. If you’ve been charged with Federal violation of probation or Federal violation of supervised release, contact Tampa Federal criminal attorney Jason Mayberry today at 813-444-7435 or at 727-771-3847.