The Youthful Offenders Act and Your Florida Drug Case
If you are going to get arrested for drug possession or another drug-related crime, the time to do it is when you are young. The law acknowledges that young people are in a better position than their older counterparts to learn from their mistakes. This is why there is a whole separate juvenile justice system for defendants under the age of 18. If you go to juvenile court, being adjudicated delinquent is not quite the same as a criminal conviction, juvenile detention is not quite the same as jail, and interactions with the juvenile justice system do not remain on your record after you turn 18. What happens if you are just barely past the threshold of legal adulthood? Your 18-year-old self is only slightly more mature than your 17-year-old self, and only slightly less curious about drugs and risk taking. Florida law provides opportunities for reduced sentencing for young adults who get charged with certain criminal offenses, including some felonies, when they are younger than 21. If you received criminal charges for drug offenses shortly after you turned 18, contact a Florida drug offenses attorney.
Florida Offers Reduced Sentences for Defendants Under the Age of 21 Convicted of Nonviolent Offenses
The Florida Youthful Offenders Act provides guidelines for reduced sentences for young adults convicted of crimes. If you are sentenced as a youthful offender, then the maximum time of your sentence is six years, even if that is less than the usual sentence for the charges to which you pleaded guilty. The six-year maximum applies to the sum of any incarceration, community supervision, and probation that the court includes in your sentence. Furthermore, youthful offenders serve the incarceration part of their sentences in county jail instead of in state prison. For example, several years ago, a 20-year-old college student was convicted of drugged driving and vehicular manslaughter. He could have gotten 15 years in state prison, but instead the court sentenced him as a youthful offender, so he served three years in county jail followed by three years on probation. Defendants are eligible for youthful offender sentencing if they are younger than 21 at the time of their arrest.
Although youthful offender sentencing is better than getting a long sentence in state prison when you have barely entered your 20s, it is not the best-case scenario. A better outcome is not to go to jail and not to get a criminal conviction on your record at all. If you do not have any previous criminal convictions, then there is a good chance that your case can go through drug court, which is a pretrial adjudication program. In drug court, you enter a provisional plea of no contest, complete a probation sentence that includes drug testing and substance abuse treatment, and then get your charges dropped.
Contact FL Drug Defense Group About Drug Cases
A Central Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing drug charges, and you are younger than 21. Contact FL Drug Defense Group in Orlando, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
wuft.org/public-safety/2020-12-23/ahead-of-christmas-a-3-year-prison-sentence-in-fatal-drunken-driving-crash
