Q: I have court supervision for one year for battery and I got 2 tickets today do I go to jail?

A: Hello Asker,

As a practical matter, I think it is unlikely. The jails are often full and if you were given supervision, they are very likely to resentence you in a manner that will avoid jail if they choose to resentence you. A requirement of your supervision on your battery case was that you receive no new criminal offenses. If you do, they have the power to file a petition to revoke your supervision and resentence you to up to the maximum of 364 days in jail and/or $2,500.

That said, in practical terms, this makes little sense. You don't appear to be a hardened criminal and they don't need the cost of filling the jails needlessly or creating the paperwork over such a small violation. In practical terms, they may overlook the tickets because they see it as small fry stuff compared to filing a petition to revoke. If they chose to take action, I would suspect that they would revoke your supervision and resentence you to a conviction with the same terms to apply (same fine, same community service if any, same anger management if any, etc).

Most prosecutors don't have time to go on a crusade for such minor violations of supervision. Now if you violated your battery supervision by battering someone else, that is a different matter entirely. At the end of the day, these things often boil down to common sense and there is little reason for such an overreaction as resentencing one to jail. While some hanging judges do exist who may want to see a small jail stint to teach a lesson, even they would probably reserve such a scared straight treatment for those who violate their supervision with crimes that are of a similar nature rather than minor traffic violations.

Hope that helps!

Sincerely,

Jason A. Wilkins

Traffic Attorney

(630) 445-2293