USA - Can I just take jail time over probation?

[ChoppedandFaded]

swim was charged with 2 misdemeanor drug possession charges and one felony drug possession charge in the state of WI. After a long legal process, swim has been offered a plea deal. The deal is that swim pleads guilty to the 2 misdemeanor drug charges and the 3rd felony possession is amended into a misdemeanor. The punishment swim would face would be 2 years probation time.

Being a realist, swim knows that he will not be able to put up with the lack of freedom that goes along with probation and understand that if he were to mess up even once within the 2 years his probation could be revoked along with the judge imposing the original sentence upon him.

Now, swims question is, could swim accept this plea bargain and request that he be given jail time rather than probation? swim would take the deal as is if this were the case.

If swim were to plead guilty to these 3 misdemeanor charges in the state of Wisconsin, could he be locked up for more than 1 year? swim understands that misdemeanor crimes are not to be punished by more than up to one year in jail, however he has no idea if this time could be extended when one has 3 misdemeanor charges.

How much time would swim be looking at serving (maximum) if he were to take this plea deal and request jail time rather than probation?

Thanks for any and all help.

ChoppedandFaded added 186 Minutes and 16 Seconds later...

31 views and not a single reply? Surely someone knows something on this topic.

[Herbal Healer 019]

SWIM was in a simular situation with a felony and three misdimeanors & SWIM got 2 years house arrest with a 60 day suspended sentence (means u go to jail 4 60 days if you fuck up)...SWIM def. would hav rather went 2 jail 4 60 days...It's up 2 the judge really so just ask him/her or SWIys lawyer & let SWIM kno because he is interested to kno.

[MiMoMo]

There is a big disconnect between gnomes that blissfully gobble goodies without ever suffering repercussions and those elves smitten by the long arm of the law. Swiy's frustration at being viewed without reply should not be taken as intended disrespect. For those unfamiliar with the way the 'wheels of justice' roll, not replying with jibberish is a good thing. And as for those that already danced the courtroom polka, commenting on something as complex as a plea deal alteration and sentence modification is difficult without more revealing information.

Opting for incarceration instead of probation is done all the time. Many consider it torture, the extended period of scrutiny experienced while on probation, amounting to just a 'trap off'. Yet a year or more of incarceration presents its own disadvantages. Sorry, but it is impossible to constructively comment on a specific case without knowing the prosecution politics and personalities and Swiy's own personal situation.

SWIM suggests taking every arrest and the usually lengthy deliberation time as an opportunity to reevaluate one's path to see if its leading toward a desirable destination. SWIM has spent about half their adult life on numerous probations, jails, finally prison and parole. No amount of legal wheeling and dealing, courtroom theatrics or prison rehabilitation made any difference until SWIM stopped flaunting society's rules.

By the way, weekends in jail are fondly remembered as one of SWIM's favorite sentences. But its when you meet the souls doing life behind bars that you start getting an idea of what might lay ahead. There's always the next charge, a new arrest. And soon probation won't even be a consideration any more, off the table. The old saying, 'I wasn't arrested, I was rescued' comes to mind. Allow yourself proper help.

Sure, do a year in jail (County bullet), but know you've upped the ante in this game where the (court) house is dealing the cards Good luck.

[old hippie 56]

Probation hands down for swim, but he looking at least 10 yrs hard time in the Texas prison system.

[cubenisdreaming27]

swim was arrested and charged for 2 counts of paraphernalia when he was 13. but just got like 100 or some hours of unpaid work,a few months probation and had to go to an anti drug program every week.
it was either obey the rules of the program and of my mother or i go to JDC [juvenile detention center] for 21 days.
IT SUCKED BALLS. i feel bad for you bro

[Dave_the_stoner]

Sometimes it's better to be good for a while to get the system off your back. 2 years probabion is handed out like candy on halloween in the california court system. Basically it can go 2 ways formal and informal (it's a good idea to find out which is being offered, most likely formal) if it's formal, usually this means you gotta go down to the probation office every week or 2, your PO asks you shit like "have you done any drugs, have you had any police contact, yadda, yadda, yadda", then often a piss test, and they may or may not show up at your house sometime unexpectedly and search through your stuff. But formal probation will only last 6 months (if you don't get into trouble), then the rest of your probation time is basically just a lack of search and seizure rights when the cops wanna fuck with you.
Unfortunately they sometimes wanna add some terms to your probation, I've only seen gang members, violent offenders, and sex offenders get the shitty end of the stick but basically stuff like, cant leave the county, 6pm curfew, or mandatory polygraph tests (that the offender pays for).
At any rate probation sucks balls, but is more tolerable than jail IMO, unless your a gang member, violent offender, or sex offender, in which case I'd rather be a fugitive than put up with that shit.

[Police Officer]

I would imagine that one of the terms of your probation is that you complete it or you will be incarcerated for so long. If you're pleading on a felony to have it reduced, then I imagine that you'll have 2 years probation with a ___ year backup. If you violate your probation then you violate the plea agreement and nullify it. Or it could just be a probation violation and you do a month or so in the CountyJail, or even prison.

Of course you don’t have to accept probation. Probation is not a right, not an entitlement, it is a privilege. It is something that you don’t have to accept. You can just do your time.

But, who knows. There's a reason that there's so many lawyer jokes. When they get involved everything always gets all fucked up.

[ChoppedandFaded]

OP here. Just thought swim would fill you all in on what wound up happening.

Instead of the 2 years probation swim plead guilty to the 3 misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to 3 months in the local county jail during summer so that he could continue on as a college student. This way he misses no school at all and still serves his debt to society.

Swim was also given work release which means he is allowed to leave the jail 6 days a week for 12 hours or less in order to make money working at a job.

For all you swimmers out there in shitty legal situations, swim reccomends asking what the jail time is before copping a plea agreeing to a lengthy probation sentence. Swim believes the intense monitoring and lack of personal freedoms that go along with probation is how people who have relatively minor charges wind up staying in the system way longer than they should have to be.

I don't know about fellow swimmers but imo serving 3 months in county with daily work release during summer with absolutely no probation afterwards sounds like a much better idea than 2 years of being randomly visited by the bladder cops and forced to submit to urine testing and a plethora of other unnecessary conditions.

[Sven99]

Congrats on the result you wanted I suppose

Well done on pushing for your preferred outcome and securing it. Sounds much more sensible than the 2 years probation to me.