Opinion ID: 2150185
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: composition of sentencing guidelines

Text: As its title shows, the Council's proposed sentencing guidelines apply only to the sentencing of felony drug offenders. Woven into the guidelines' fabric is a matrix of sentencing ranges, in months, which ranges fall within the statutory minimum and maximum sentences for an offense. A sentencing judge would select a sentencing range by finding the intersection of coordinate points on horizontal and vertical axes. Points on the horizontal axis of the matrix represent criminal history categories, and points on the vertical axis represent crime severity levels. In addition, the matrix is color coded into three recommended types of sentences. From this mosaic, the Council recommends that a judge sentence a defendant to a prison term if the defendant's plotted sentence falls within the matrix's yellow, or upper, section. It recommends that a judge sentence a defendant to probation if the plotted sentence range falls within the matrix's light blue, or lower, section. Finally, defendants whose plotted sentence ranges fall within the dark blue, or intermediate, section are eligible for community-based correction alternatives. A judge may divert these defendants from prison.