federal crimes are different from State

crimes in three primary ways the first

one would be What’s called the federal

sentencing guidelines sentences in the

federal system are controlled by the

federal sentencing guidelines which have

very little ability for someone charged

with a crime to get probation and

they’re very harsh guidelines for what a

judge should use to impose a sentence

they’re not mandatory but they’re used

as a guidepost for federal judges in

sentencing the second area that’s very

very different is how bail is arranged

in fed in the federal system in the

federal system you are arrested and

there is not a money bail associated

with your case until you have what’s

called A detention hearing and that

detention hearing happens usually within

about a week of when you’ve been

arrested so a person will be arrested

for a federal case and usually appear in

court within a couple of days but then

the bail hearing will be spent three to

five days down the road from there and

that’s where a judge determines either a

person gets out or they stay detained

pending resolution of the case either a

trial or a plea agreement and the third

area is the amount of resources that the

federal government has

states have budgets and restrictions on

the amount of funds they can spend on

law enforcement the federal government

doesn’t have that they have unlimited

resources they have very large

prosecutorial offices they have the FBI

the ATF Homeland Security

enormous bureaucracies and agencies that

prosecute the cases so when you’re up

against the federal government their

cases are very very well prepared

because they have so many resources