Part II Offense to Sentence Date Lag Time Comparison

FACT: Scoresheets that have been received by the Department of Corrections for offenders sentenced under the Florida Criminal Punishment Code are not representative of the true impact of sentencing events under the Code.

FINDINGS:

• In order to determine the appropriateness of measuring the impact of the Code, baseline data, under the previous sentencing policy, had to be established for comparison purposes. The baseline was identified as sentencing events under the sentencing guidelines structure with sentence dates in FY 1997-98. The sentence date constraint, by design, excludes any Code scoresheets from being included in the data file.

• There were 119,001 scoresheets submitted to the Department of Corrections with sentence dates in FY1997-98. Of these, over ninety-two percent (92.1%) of the scoresheets were sentenced under the 1995 sentencing structure, with the remaining sentenced under the 1994 sentencing structure (Table 1). This data will be used in comparison with the Code data to illustrate the difficulty in trying to determine an impact of the new sentencing policy.

• Lag Time - The average length of time that passes from the date an offender commits a crime to the date the offender is sentenced for that crime is 9.6 months. As defined by the word "average", half of the lag times that occur are less than 9.6 months and half are greater than 9.6 months (Table 2).

• More serious and violent crimes typically have much longer lag time than the less serious property or drug crimes. A data file that is constrained by the date of offense must allow for enough time for the serious and violent crimes to be process and convicted in order to represent a true distribution of sentencing events. The Florida Criminal Punishment Code went into effect for offenses committed on or after October 1, 1998. As of August 31, 1999, the Department of Corrections had received over 36,000 Code scoresheets. However, because of the long lag time for serious offenses, the information to date is skewed more heavily by the less serious offenses.

• The Code scoresheets that have currently been received by the department look, in aggregate, very different from the sentencing guidelines scoresheets from FY 1997-98. For example, the average lag time for FY 1997-98 sentencing events is 9.6 months. Of the scoresheets received to date under the Code, the average lag time is 3.3 months. This suggests that the Code data have a larger proportion of less serious crimes than the FY1997-98 data (Table 2). When the lag times are examined by offense severity level and type of primary offense, the "less serious offenses" theory becomes more pronounced. The average lag time for level 10 offenses (most serious) under the Code is 5 months. In FY1997-98, the average lag time for level 10 offenses was 16.2 months. Also, for murder/manslaughter, the average lag time from offense to sentence is 5.5 months under the Code and 16.7 months in FY1997-98 (Table 3).

• An examination of the distribution of type of offenses represented is also revealing. In FY1997-98, the more violent, serious offenses represented almost twenty percent (18.9%) of the scoresheets, while under the Code, less than fourteen percent (13.9%) were the more violent, serious offenses (Table 4). At a more detailed level, felony traffic and driving offenses made up less than three percent (2.9%) of all offenses in FY1997-98, while over seven percent (7.5%) of the Code scoresheets were for felony traffic offenses (Table 5).

Table 1

Sentencing Guidelines Scoresheets Received by Month of Sentence

Fiscal Year 1997-98

Month of Sentence	1994 Sentencing Guidelines Scoresheet		1995 Sentencing Guidelines Scoresheet		Total
July 1997	1,033	10.4%	8,875	89.6%	9,908	100.0%
August 1997	1,004	10.5%	8,528	89.5%	9,532	100.0%
September 1997	928	8.9%	9,501	91.1%	10,429	100.0%
October 1997	1,009	9.0%	10,194	91.0%	11,203	100.0%
November 1997	720	8.3%	7,960	91.7%	8,680	100.0%
December 1997	667	7.9%	7,725	92.1%	8,392	100.0%
January 1998	781	7.6%	9,437	92.4%	10,218	100.0%
February 1998	671	7.1%	8,743	92.9%	9,414	100.0%
March 1998	716	6.8%	9,868	93.2%	10,584	100.0%
April 1998	692	6.7%	9,687	93.3%	10,379	100.0%
May 1998	585	5.9%	9,295	94.1%	9,880	100.0%
June 1998	563	5.4%	9,819	94.6%	10,382	100.0%
Total	9,369	7.9%	109,632	92.1%	119,001	100.0%

Table 2

Comparison of Average Time From Offense Date to Sentence Date

By Offense Severity Level of Primary Offense

In Months

Offense Severity Level	Sentencing Guidelines FY 97-98 Sentence Dates	Criminal Punishment Code
1	11.3	3.2
2	10.9	3.4
3	7.8	2.9
4	9.2	3.2
5	8.9	3.4
6	9.7	3.8
7	12.2	4.2
8	11.9	4.8
9	13.0	5.2
10	16.2	5.0
Overall Average	9.6	3.3

Table 3

Comparison of Average "Lag" Time From Offense Date to Sentence Date

By Primary Offense In Months

Primary Offense	Sentencing Guidelines FY 97-98 Sentence Dates	Criminal Punishment Code
Murder/Manslaughter	16.7	5.5
Sexual/Lewd Behavior	15.3	4.8
Robbery	10.5	4.3
Violent, Other	9.7	3.6
Burglary	9.9	3.7
Property Theft/Fraud/Damage	11.7	3.5
Drugs	8.1	3.0
Weapons	9.0	3.4
Other	8.3	3.3
Overall Average	9.6	3.3

Table 4

Distribution of Offense

Sentencing Guidelines vs. Criminal Punishment Code

Primary Offense	Sentencing Guidelines FY 97-98 Sentence Dates	Criminal Punishment Code
Murder/Manslaughter	843	46
	0.7%	0.1%
Sexual/Lewd Behavior	2,411	247
	2.0%	0.7%
Robbery	3,676	682
	3.1%	1.9%
Violent, Other	15,639	4,114
	13.1%	11.2%
Burglary	12,888	3,225
	10.8%	8.8%
Property Theft/Fraud/Damage	26,857	6,975
	22.6%	18.9%
Drugs	44,986	16,099
	37.8%	43.7%
Weapons	4,086	1,050
	3.4%	2.9%
Other	7,615	4,380
	6.4%	11.9%
Total	119,001	36,818
	100.0%	100.0%

Table 5

Distribution of Offense

Sentencing Guidelines vs. Criminal Punishment Code

Primary Offense	Sentencing Guidelines FY 97-98 Sentence Dates		Criminal Punishment Code
	Frequency	Percent	Frequency	Percent
MURDER, MANSLAUGHTER	843	0.7%	46	0.1%
1st Degree Murder	167	0.1%	11	0.0%
2nd Degree Murder	337	0.3%	13	0.0%
3rd Degree Murder	22	0.0%	2	0.0%
Homicide, Other	5	0.0%	0	0.0%
Manslaughter	197	0.2%	12	0.0%
DUI Manslaughter	115	0.1%	8	0.0%
SEXUAL OFFENSES	2,411	2.0%	247	0.7%
Capital Sexual Battery	148	0.1%	9	0.0%
Life Sexual Battery	102	0.1%	7	0.0%
1st Degree Sexual Battery	172	0.1%	6	0.0%
2nd Degree Sexual Battery	304	0.3%	36	0.1%
Sexual Assault, Other	5	0.0%	1	0.0%
Lewd/Lascivious Behavior	1,680	1.4%	188	0.5%
ROBBERY	3,676	3.1%	682	1.9%
Robbery with Weapon	1,482	1.2%	206	0.6%
Robbery without Weapon	2,125	1.8%	465	1.3%
Home Invasion, Robbery	69	0.1%	11	0.0%
VIOLENT PERSONAL OFFENSES	15,639	13.1%	4,114	11.2%
Home Invasion, Other	2	0.0%	0	0.0%
Carjacking	147	0.1%	37	0.1%
Aggravated Assault	3,291	2.8%	728	2.0%
Aggravated Battery	3,114	2.6%	484	1.3%
Assault/Battery on L.E.O.	2,288	1.9%	653	1.8%
Assault/Battery, Other	473	0.4%	179	0.5%
Aggravated Stalking	389	0.3%	61	0.2%
Resisting Arrest with Violence	2,823	2.4%	938	2.5%
Kidnapping	587	0.5%	124	0.3%
Arson	326	0.3%	71	0.2%
Abuse of Children	900	0.8%	306	0.8%
Leaving Accident, Injury/Death	551	0.5%	140	0.4%
DUI, Injury	227	0.2%	20	0.1%
Violent, Other	521	0.4%	373	1.0%
BURGLARY	12,888	10.8%	3,225	8.8%
Burglary, Structure	7,133	6.0%	1,978	5.4%
Burglary, Dwelling	4,145	3.5%	861	2.3%
Burglary, Armed	452	0.4%	70	0.2%
Burglary with Assault	503	0.4%	73	0.2%
Burglary/Trespass, Other	655	0.6%	243	0.7%
THEFT, FORGERY, FRAUD	26,857	22.6%	6,975	18.9%
Grand Theft, Other	9,468	8.0%	2,618	7.1%
Grand Theft, Automobile	4,196	3.5%	1,349	3.7%
Stolen Property	3,479	2.9%	739	2.0%
Forgery/Counterfeiting	3,558	3.0%	1,060	2.9%
Worthless Checks	2,067	1.7%	104	0.3%
Fraudulent Practices	2,688	2.3%	571	1.6%
Theft/Property Damage, Other	1,401	1.2%	534	1.5%
DRUGS	44,986	37.8%	16,099	43.7%
Drugs, Manufacture/Sale/Purchase	17,794	15.0%	5,766	15.7%
Drugs, Trafficking	1,250	1.1%	144	0.4%
Drugs, Possession/Other	25,942	21.8%	10,189	27.7%
WEAPONS	4,086	3.4%	1,050	2.9%
Weapons, Discharging	622	0.5%	161	0.4%
Weapons, Possession	3,456	2.9%	879	2.4%
Weapons, Other	8	0.0%	10	0.0%
OTHER OFFENSES	7,615	6.4%	4,380	11.9%
Escape	1,462	1.2%	736	2.0%
DUI, No Injury	794	0.7%	222	0.6%
Traffic, Other	3,484	2.9%	2,744	7.5%
Racketeering	65	0.1%	0	0.0%
Pollution/Hazardous Materials	101	0.1%	15	0.0%
Other	1,709	1.4%	663	1.8%
TOTAL	119,001	100.0%	36,818	100.0%