We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

STATE TIME MAY NOT BE BETTER… BUT IT IS SHORTER

Federal inmates (and especially their families) often complain that the prisoner would be better off with a state conviction, because he or she would have gotten a shorter sentence? True? Or just a federal inmate myth?

The Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report last Wednesday reporting on how much time offenders serve in state prisons, and it is illuminating.

The average time served by state prisoners released in 2016, from initial admission to initial release, was 2.6 years. By comparison, in 2016, federal prisoners served an average of 3.6 years.

All of those who thought they would have been better off killing someone than, say, looking at child porn or selling drugs, now have some hard numbers to back up their beef: defendants sentenced for murder or non-negligent manslaughter served an average of 180 months in state prison before their initial release. This means that if a federal inmate has more than 206 months – like the guy who contacted us the other day with a 360-month sentence for a marijuana conspiracy – he or she should have just shot that meth customer instead of dealing to him.

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Time Served in State Prison, 2016 (Nov. 28, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root