Criminals who are found guilty of an offense against a statute of the law of a state receive a sentence. Upon receipt of that sentence, the history of that crime becomes part of the conviction records for that state.
Over the past eight years, there have been over 2.5 million prisoners in the prisons and jails in the United States. All you have to do is pick up the daily paper to confirm the inordinate amount of bad and criminal behaviour that has permeated our society.
If a person who has been found guilty of the commission of a crime, either by a judge or by a jury of his peers or by a plea of guilty on his own behalf, he or she receives a sentence for the crime. Once the sentence has been handed down by a judge, the individual is found to be convicted of that crime.
Conviction records contain indisputable evidence that an individual has committed an offense for which (s)he has received a sentence. The sentence that a person receives depends on the crime for which he or she has been convicted and the circumstances of the crime.
Conviction Records Disclose the Past
All convicted criminals who have committed felony offenses face prison terms. Generally, unless they receive Probation, these convicted felons must serve a minimum of one year in a Federal or state prison because of the nature of the crime. Because a convicted felon has committed a crime of a serious nature, such as Armed Robbery or Assault with a Deadly Weapon, parole supervision may await the criminal upon his release from prison.
If a person has been convicted of a misdemeanor, s(he) serves the sentence in a county jail if the sentence has a maximum of less than one year of jail time. However, due to the high rate of recidivism, that is, repeat offenses of similar nature, these misdemeanor offenses often turn into prison time in excess of one year for the criminal who has a history of multiple convictions.
Conviction records contain all crimes for which a sentence has been handed down to the defendant. The sentences for these convicted criminals may range from a fine to jail or prison time. Conviction records are an indisputable way of finding out if a person has been convicted of a crime.
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