During my teenage monkeyshine years I was often admonished to avoid the “federal offense.” Do federal crimes typically have harsher sentences?
Not only that, but you’ll do your time in a federal prison, which while I’m no expert on prison conditions, are said to be worse than your state prisons. Think Leavenworth…
What in the hell were you doing as a young man anyway? Smuggling machine guns full of cocaine?
No parole in the federal prison system, for one thing.
Leavenworth is a military prison. It depends on what state your’re comparing the federal prisons too. Federal conditions are better than some states and worse that others.
Um. No. Fort Leavenworth US Military Disciplinary Barracks is a military prison. Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary is (big surprise coming!) a Federal Penitentiary.
QtM, who’s spent more time in a maximum security prison than most of you want to think about!
It is much worse to be tried and sentenced for capital crimes under state laws than federal. States execute peeps much more so that feds do! As for living conditions, check out nonfic stuff on Angola prison in LA, etc. You would much prefer getting nailed for a “federal offense” than a state one, even today after much reform and litigation. Getting sentenced to “country club” prisons happens when you are convicted of federal crimes, not state. =D
Cheers!
BA
Ah yes, I remember my monkeyshine running days back when I lived in the heart of darkest Africa. Grampaw & I would spend days in the jungle harvesting the finest bananas and fermenting them into top-quality monkeyshine on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. Delivering it to our customers was always a challenge, but Grammaw was a hell of a 4-wheel drive mechanic and we had the best monkeyshine runnin’ truck in Kenya. The local warlords never could run us down!
I think you may have misheard “federal offense” when someone told you to avoid the Fe De-Ralo Fence: a 257 mile long, 100 yard wide swath of razor wire designed to keep the mountain gorillas at bay. Always a good idea to avoid that thing.
Are you sure they weren’t just telling you not to take your girlfriend across a state line?
Google “Chuck Berry” and “Mann Act”.
Federal crimes don’t necessarily have harsher sentences, but federal offenders tend to serve much more of their sentences than do state offenders. If you get sentenced to 20 years in prison in Texas for a non-3g offense (3g offenses are serious, like capital murder, agg. assault, indecency with a child, etc.) you could be out in under ten years, but if you get sentenced to twenty years in federal court for any offense, you’re going to do close to all twenty years. As stated, there is no parole in federal prison. After a year you can accrue “good time” to the tune of about 54 days a year, the result of which is you’ll do at least 85% of your sentence. By contrast, Chante Mallard (the Fort Worth windshield murderess) will be eligible for parole when just half of her 50 year first degree murder sentence has been served. If you’re going to get a lengthy jail sentence, you’re probably much better off receiving a state sentence. People I know who are getting long federal sentences tend to feel very upset about it.
I don’t think that’s the reason why people say “federal offense” or “don’t make a federal case out of it” colloquially, though. I think federal courts and federal crimes are just sort of seen as “the show;” when the feds are coming after you you know you’ve hit the Al Capone big time. In state courts you see a lot of minor to moderate possession cases, whereas federal courts tend to have the really impressive stuff with the FBI, Secret Service, fully automatic weapons getting confiscated, amounts measured in kilos (and ocassionally metric tons), etc.
Gave me a damn good laugh.
If you’re a federal offender, you permanently lose your right to vote. Some felons in state prisons can vote after being released, depending on their crimes. I think if you’ve been in a federal jail, you never get to vote again.
I’d LOVE to hear more about your history!! Have you written a book yet? 
I’ve heard though that very broadly speaking federal crimes tend to be more white collar type offenses while convicts in state prisons are more likely to be there for violent crimes like murder, assault, rape. True?
If it is true a longer federal sentence might be less dangerous to your health than a shorter state one.
Yes, the feds don’t procecute you as often, or at all in some cases, as states do for murder, assault and/or rape. State prisons are sh*tholes, for the most part, fed prisons are generally better maintained. There is no contest, here, really, much better to go through federal system. =D
Cheers!
BA
IANAL, but I don’t think that this is right. With the exceptions of stating that citizens get to vote for U.S Senators and House members and that people cannot be denied the right to vote due to their possessing certain characteristics (being black, female etc.)* I don’t think that the federal government has any say in what voting rights you do and do not have. That matter is left entirely up to the states.
*IOW, PA can’t deny only blacks the right to vote for governor, but they can deny ALL Pennsylvanian citizens the right to vote for governor.