A common question from someone who is charged with a crime is what the potential punishment or time of incarceration could be for the charge. In Pennsylvania, courts use sentencing guidelines as a guide for determining someone’s sentence. A person’s guidelines are a combination of his prior record score and the offense gravity score. This blog will address an issue dealing with a person’s prior record score.
A person’s prior record score is calculated based on how many prior convictions that person has and the grading of those convictions. In addition to calculating the number of convictions, a person’s juvenile adjudications can also be counted towards his prior record score.
In order for a juvenile adjudication to apply to a person’s prior record score, the following criteria must be met:
-the offense occurred on or after the offender’s 14th birthday
-there was an express finding by the juvenile court that the adjudication was for a felony or one of the misdemeanor 1 offenses listed.
If those criteria are met, the juvenile adjudication would apply towards the person’s prior record score as determined based on the grading of the crime adjudicated.
