State sentencing guidelines may include rules on probation

The amount of probation a person receives shouldn’t depend on which side of the Mississippi River they live.

That phrase was heard often by lawmakers Wednesday as a shorthand to describe the wide variation in the length of probation given to offenders in different parts of the state, a disparity particularly glaring in the metropolitan area.

In Ramsey County – the 2nd Judicial District – the average length of probation is six years, but it’s only three years across the river in Hennepin County – the 4th Judicial District.

HF997, sponsored by Rep. Jamie Long (DFL-Mpls), would direct the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission to establish rules “to maintain uniformity, proportionality, rationality, and predictability” in probation sentences just as current law requires it to do for prison sentences.

The House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division laid the bill over, as amended, for possible inclusion in the division’s omnibus bill. It has no Senate companion.