How do Federal Sentencing Guidelines Compare to Kansas State Sentencing Guidelines?

How do Federal Sentencing Guidelines Compare to Kansas State Sentencing Guidelines?

Interviewer: Can you just give me a general comparison?  Suppose I am facing a state drug charge.  How long might I go to jail versus a federal charge?  Also, what are the penalties for the most common federal crimes, based on the sentencing guidelines.

Paul: The federal sentencing guidelines are extremely aggressive with methamphetamine.  A comparatively smaller quantity of methamphetamine will result in an exponentially longer sentence than a comparatively larger quantity of marijuana.

So the type of drug you have, as well as the amount of drug you have, dictates what the sentence will be.  A lot of these folks will find themselves in a case where the mandatory minimum is 10 years. They face a mandatory minimum sentence of 120 months when they are indicted on certain drug conspiracy charges at the federal level.

At the state level, Kansas only recently amended the sentencing guidelines to try to accommodate different types and different quantities of narcotics.  For example, if someone with no criminal history in Kansas is charged with a severity level 1 drug offense, it is now comparable to the sentences imposed at the federal level. The sentencing range under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines with no criminal history at all is now 138 to 154 months.

So the Kansas sentencing guidelines have certainly become far more aggressive. They have sentences that are now comparable to the 10 plus year sentences you see at the federal level.  I do not see quite as much sentencing disparity now that the State of Kansas amended and modified their drug sentencing guidelines.  It used to be that you were facing significantly less sentencing risk at the state level at least here in Kansas; than at the federal level for comparable amounts of narcotics.  Now, that is not the case.

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