Community Control Violations

Community control is a sentence. Just as jail is a sentence. Community control is jail at home. Community control is an alternative to prison in felony criminal cases. A prison sentence can be coupled with a sentence of probation after the prison portion is completed. Any Florida criminal court conviction or Federal criminal conviction must specify the terms and conditions of community based sanctions imposed in the community control plan. Post conviction sanctions imposed under federal criminal law and Florida criminal law range from probation, which is a condition of sentencing which permits one to remain in the community. Community control is a very severe form of supervision where the individual is permitted to live in their home but cannot leave the home except for limited and specific purposes. Both federal criminal law and Florida criminal law specifically include community control as a post conviction sentence.

Sentences imposed under Florida criminal law and under Federal Florida criminal courts provide for the court to retain jurisdiction to modify any and all conditions of community control. The same is true in federal courts: a sentence imposed by federal judge under federal criminal law requires jurisdiction be retained by the federal courts and modifications of community control must be heard by a federal judge and not a Florida criminal court judge. The jurisdiction to modify conditions of community control or probation remains with the sentencing court: community control imposed pursuant to Florida criminal statutes by Florida criminal judges remains within Florida courts to modify.

All courts may impose special conditions in a community control sentence. Both Florida criminal law and federal criminal law requires the sentencing judge to limit special conditions to those reasonably related to the offense committed. Federal criminal courts in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach as well as Florida criminal courts refer all supervision to their respective prison authorities. Community control and probation from Florida criminal court is supervised by the Florida Department of Corrections. A community probation sentence imposed in federal court pursuant to federal criminal law is supervised by the United States Bureau of prisons. Courts in West Palm Beach, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, both federal and Florida, have daily dockets during all court days for hearing motions and modifications to community control, as well as hearings concerning violation of community control or violation of probation.

Community control imposed by Florida criminal courts or in US federal courts limit the area of travel permitted. Travel beyond the immediate County is only by special permission from the criminal court judge. If an individual wishes to travel outside the County or outside the state he/she must seek and obtain permission from the supervising judge. Probation officers and community control officers do not have the legal authority to modify conditions imposed under Florida criminal law nor conditions imposed under federal criminal law. Your criminal defense attorney, either federal or Florida, must set down for hearing any request to travel beyond the permitted areas imposed in the community control order pronounced at sentencing.

Most defendants remain in close contact with their criminal defense attorney. The same is true for one's federal criminal defense attorney: once under community control sanctions, imposed either by federal criminal law or Florida criminal law, only your criminal lawyer can set court hearings for modification or violations. Federal criminal attorneys can appear in jurisdictions outside of the sentencing jurisdiction for the purpose of obtaining federal court permission to modify conditions of community control. By example if a defendant is convicted in federal court in New York and their federal probation or community control is transferred to Florida, whether it be in Miami, Fort Lauderdale West Palm Beach, the local federal District Court can be granted jurisdiction from the federal sentencing court, and be the proper venue to modify federal community control conditions.