What happens if a person violates probation in Minnesota?

What happens if a person violates probation in Minnesota? In general, the court may take the person into custody and hold a hearing, and if it finds a violation, it can continue probation, add intermediate sanctions, or order a sentence carried out. The process is set out in Minn. Stat. § 609.14. The statute says revocation is to be used only as a last resort when rehabilitation has failed, and it treats some minor violations differently from others. The sections below walk through each step.

What probation is and what counts as a violation

Probation is a court-ordered sanction of supervision, imposed as an alternative to confinement or together with it. Its stated purposes are to deter further criminal behavior, punish the offender, help repair harm to victims and communities, and give offenders opportunities for rehabilitation (Minn. Stat. § 609.02).

A court may stay imposition or execution of a sentence and place a person on probation on the terms the court prescribes (Minn. Stat. § 609.135). Those terms can include intermediate sanctions such as home detention, electronic monitoring, treatment or counseling, restitution, fines and community work service. A court may also require up to one year in a county jail or similar local facility as a condition of probation.

A violation occurs when a person fails to meet a condition of probation or an intermediate sanction. The court may also act if the person has otherwise been guilty of misconduct that warrants adjudication of guilt, or imposition or execution of sentence (Minn. Stat. § 609.14).

How revocation starts

When it appears that a condition has been violated, the court may revoke the stay without notice and direct that the person be taken into immediate custody (Minn. Stat. § 609.14). The statute also says revocation is a last resort, used when rehabilitation has failed.

Unless the court directs otherwise, state parole and probation agents and probation officers may impose community work service or probation violation sanctions themselves (Minn. Stat. § 609.135). Those sanctions are separate from a court revocation.

Notice and the hearing

After a stay is revoked, the person must be notified in writing, in the manner the court directs, of the grounds alleged for revocation. If the person contests those grounds, a summary hearing is held. At that hearing the person is entitled to be heard and to be represented by counsel (Minn. Stat. § 609.14).

If the court finds that none of the alleged grounds exist, the person is restored to liberty under the court's previous order (Minn. Stat. § 609.14).

What the court can do if a violation is found

The available outcomes depend on how the original case was handled (Minn. Stat. § 609.14). In the statute's terms, a "stay" means a stay of adjudication, a stay of imposition, a stay of execution, or a deferred prosecution.

• Imposition of sentence was stayed: the court may stay the sentence again, or impose a sentence and stay its execution, and in either case place the person on probation or order intermediate sanctions. It may instead impose the sentence and order it carried out.

• Sentence was imposed and its execution stayed: the court may continue the stay with probation or intermediate sanctions, or order the previously imposed sentence carried out.

• Adjudication was stayed or prosecution was deferred: the court may continue the stay with or without intermediate sanctions, or adjudicate guilt and proceed as otherwise provided, including under section 244.10 in the event of a felony conviction.

So a violation does not automatically lead to jail or prison. The result can range from continued probation with added conditions to execution of a sentence.

Violations where continued probation is favored

The law recognizes that treatment in the community is often better than confinement for certain violations. Policies favoring probation outweigh the need for confinement when a person has not previously violated a condition of probation or intermediate sanction in an open criminal case and does any of the following (Minn. Stat. § 609.14):

• fails to abstain from controlled substances without a valid prescription, or from alcohol;

• possesses drug paraphernalia in violation of section 152.092;

• fails to obtain or maintain employment, or to pursue a course of study or vocational training;

• fails to report a change in employment;

• violates a curfew;

• fails to report contact with law enforcement, unless the person was charged with a crime; or

• commits a petty misdemeanor, which is an offense that is not a crime and carries a fine of not more than $300 (Minn. Stat. § 609.02).

The abstinence provisions do not apply to a person under supervision for certain offenses, including driving while impaired and some criminal vehicular homicide or operation offenses (Minn. Stat. § 609.2112, Minn. Stat. § 609.2113). The employment-change and law enforcement contact items also have limited exceptions.

For these violations, the court may not order sentence imposed or executed, or direct custody, unless it receives a written report signed under penalty of perjury. The report must show probable cause of a violation and establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the person's continued presence in the community would present a risk to public safety. Otherwise the court may request a supplemental report from the supervising agent describing the violation, the person's response and the agent's actions.

Separately, at a summary hearing, a probation agent must present local options, including inpatient chemical dependency treatment, when the person is a nonviolent controlled substance offender on supervised probation who appears for a technical violation and admits or is found to have violated a condition.

Timing, restitution and treatment

A violation does not always end with the probation term. If the stay has expired, a probation officer or prosecutor may ask the court to start revocation proceedings within six months after the expiration, and the court may also start them on its own. If they begin within that period, the court may hold the hearing during or after it (Minn. Stat. § 609.14).

Once a court order has started revocation proceedings, the summary hearing may be held after the stay or the six-month period ends. The proceedings cannot be dismissed on that basis. Difficulty locating the person does not prevent the hearing unless the person shows the state purposely caused the delay to gain an unfair advantage.

The statute otherwise provides for discharge six months after the stay expires, unless the stay has been revoked or extended (Minn. Stat. § 609.135).

Two violations have their own procedures under that section:

• Unpaid restitution: the prosecutor or probation officer may ask for a hearing on whether conditions should change or probation be revoked, and the officer must ask if restitution is unpaid 60 days before the term ends. A court may extend probation up to one year, and up to one more year after another hearing.

• Uncompleted treatment: if court-ordered treatment is not completed at least 60 days before the term ends, a hearing may be requested. If the person is likely not to finish before the term expires, the court may extend probation for up to three years.