They are the rules that judges follow on federal sentences. If you are found guilty, the Sentencing Guidelines mostly will decide your sentence. So they really are not "guidelines" at all, but rules. There is a thick book that lists all the guidelines. You and your lawyers will look at it, more than once. The judge has to follow the book.

For starters, the guidelines give an "offense level" and a "criminal history category." Offense levels are in points. The fewer points, the lower the sentence. Criminal history categories are in roman numerals, 1 through 6. Again, the lower the better.

Offense level goes down the page and criminal history goes across the top of the page to make a chart or graph. Then you see where the offense level crosses the criminal history category, and there is the "guideline range." It is in months: for example, one of the many ranges is "78 - 97." That means 78 months is the lowest the judge usually can give, and 97 months usually the highest. When you turn that range into years, it is 6 years, 6 months at the low end to 8 years, 1 month at the high end. This is just one example.

If the judge for some reason were sentencing his own sister, he would have to give her a sentence in that range. There are upward and downward departures, but those have special reasons and are rare.

The law that created the Sentencing Guidelines also ended parole in federal prison. So now a person serves his actual sentence, minus only 1 day off for every 7 days in after the first year (as "good time," if the person behaves).

The Sentencing Guidelines are bad and good. They give prosecutors even more control, and the judges less, because the crimes the prosecutor chooses will heavily control the Sentencing Guidelines that apply.

But they also allow a person to plan a little more if he is found guilty. This is why. Under the crime itself, it might look like the sentence could be anywhere from 0 to 20 years in prison, for example. Before the Sentencing Guidelines, a person did not have any idea what his sentence might be in that huge range. Now, the guidelines let us narrow it down a bit. That allows you to plan for best and worst cases. You can better answer questions like how long will my girlfriend or wife have to stick around while I am gone? Will I definitely see my daughter graduate from high school, if not from 8th grade? Do I have enough saved to keep my house or car?

Congress and President Reagan put the Sentencing Guidelines in mostly to try to make sure that the same federal crimes get about the same sentences, no matter where in America they are. The Sentencing Guidelines have not worked so well in that way, or at least they have been mixed. If you or your friends and family are interested, we can give you more information about groups that work to improve or get rid of the guidelines and other federal sentencing laws.

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