What To Know About Felony Sentences In Minnesota.

Minnesota law creates many different felonies. While all are serious, felony penalties vary widely. The least severe felonies are punishable by up to one year and one day in prison. The most severe felony penalty is a life sentence. A felony conviction will likely affect your ability to find employment and housing. It may also lead to the loss of your firearm rights or required predatory offender registration.

Several strategies or programs may help reduce or avoid a lengthy prison sentence. This blog explains how felony sentences are calculated and how they can be reduced.

The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines.

In Minnesota, the legislature creates crimes by enacting statutes that define what conduct is punishable. The legislature also creates the penalty for the crime. However, judges often retain discretion to decide the penalty in specific cases.

Because felony sentences are so wide ranging, and every individual judge is likely to have different ideas about appropriate punishment, Minnesota created the sentencing guidelines to restrict the judges’ discretion. They are intended to ensure similarly situated people are punished the same. They are also intended to create a rational and consistent approach to calculating felony sentences. This ultimately helps defendants intelligently decide whether to plead guilty or go to trial.

The Sentencing Guidelines Consider Criminal History And Offense Severity.

Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines create a standard, presumed sentence that is calculated based on the severity of the current offense and the defendant’s prior criminal history. Each crime in Minnesota is ranked and given a severity level, which is often a number or letter.

Then, the defendant’s prior criminal convictions are considered. Each prior felony conviction is given a point value, based on its severity, and the total points are added together. This combination of the current offense’s severity and criminal history score determines the presumptive prison sentence.

The presumptive sentence will be a set number, or range, of months in prison. Furthermore, the presumptive sentence will be either a commitment to prison or a stayed sentence. Commitments mean the defendant will go to prison and serve the time. A stayed sentence means the defendant will be placed on probation and will have prison time hanging over their head, to incentivize lawful behavior moving forward and compliance with probation. A defendant who receives a stayed sentence may still be penalized by up to 364 days in the local jail as a condition of probation, however.

Strategies That May Reduce The Sentence.

There are several ways that a felony prison sentence in Minnesota may be reduced or avoided. First, the presumptive sentence described above is, for most crimes, not mandatory. Your attorney can help argue for a departure. There are two types of departures: dispositional and durational.

Dispositional departures turn a commitment into a stayed sentence, meaning that the defendant will not go to prison now, but will have the prison time hanging over their head. These departures require convincing the judge that the defendant is particularly amenable to probation. Judges may consider many different factors including the defendant’s age, remorse, prior efforts at rehabilitation, community support, and degree of culpability.

A durational departure shortens the length of the prison sentence. Durational departures are generally granted only if the defendant convinces the judge that the particular offense is substantially less severe than other offenses of the same kind. To establish this, the judge will consider what typically happened when other people committed the same crime. If the defendant’s conduct is substantially less severe, then a departure may be granted.

Second, your attorney can help negotiate a deal with the prosecutor. A prosecutor’s agreement that a dispositional or durational departure is justified goes a long way in convincing a judge to grant the departure. Alternatively, your attorney may negotiate a deal that involves pleading guilty to a lesser included offense or an amended charge. These offenses may have a far shorter sentence or even a stayed sentence.

Third, your attorney can challenge the accuracy of your criminal history score. Calculating the criminal history score is not always straightforward. Old convictions decay over time, meaning that they eventually cannot be used to increase your criminal history score. Out of state convictions may also be challenged on the grounds that they are not felonies in Minnesota or are felonies of a lesser degree.

Various Prison Programs May Reduce Time Actually Served.

If a felony sentence is imposed, there are several ways that the actual amount of time served may be reduced. These include Minnesota’s “good time” law, the Challenge incarcerated program (CIP), and the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act (MRRA).

Good time was created by Minnesota statute 244.04. It applies to most felony sentences. The purpose of good time is to incentivize good behavior while inside prison. If inmates comply with prison rules and are not disciplined, then they can have their sentence reduced by a third. The reduced third is instead served on supervised release.

The CIP program is generally available when the felony did not involve violence, death, or intentional personal injury. There are three phases. The first phase takes place in prison and is focused on teaching personal discipline and improving mental well-being. It may include substance use treatment, education, cognitive skills classes, restorative justice, or other classes. If completed, the next two phases occur outside of prison and under intensive supervision. The program also requires that the prisoner have no open cases or warrants.

Lastly, Minnesota recently enacted the MRRA. The MRRA is intended to apply broadly to most felonies. It utilizes individual rehabilitation plans and allows prisoners to earn credit off their prison sentence by following through. However, as of April 2026, the program is still being implemented and expanded. Implementation is expected by September 2026. Once available, the program adds on top of good time and may allow a reduction of prison time down to one half of the original sentence.

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If you or someone you know has been accused of a felony crime in Minnesota, don’t wait to get the legal help you need. Contact McKinney Defense today by calling (612) 300-1208 or filling out our online form to schedule a FREE consultation. Let me fight for your rights and help you take the first step toward fair representation.

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This blog post (“post”) is provided for general informational purposes only and may not reflect the current law in Minnesota or your jurisdiction. No information in this post should be construed as legal advice from the individual author or the law firm, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting based on any information included in or accessible through this post without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer licensed in the recipient’s state, country, or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.