Unlawful Possession of Cocaine: What is 410 Probation?

As any state criminal prosecutor will tell you about half of all felony arrests are for the same thing- illegal possession of a small amount of a controlled substance for personal use. And of all those arrests for possessing a small amount of an illegal substance, at least 90% of those arrests will be for being caught with a small amount of cocaine, either in powder form or in rock form. Illegally possessing even a minute amount of cocaine, less than .1 of a gram, is a felony in Illinois and in every other state in the union. The country is inundated with cocaine and cocaine users. It's a highly addictive narcotic. I have seen too many people lose everything-house, family, job, car -everything, because of a cocaine problem. So how is the government trying to deal with the problem? One way is with 410 probation. That's what it's called in Illinois. It's named after the Illinois statutory section that created it and a form of 410 probation exists in every state under various names.

Under 410 probation in Illinois, and in almost all jurisdictions I know of, those arrested for possessing a small amount of cocaine will ordinarily be given the opportunity to avoid jail, avoid possible prison up to three years (in Illinois), and even avoid becoming a convicted felon. It's a program for first offenders caught with small amounts of drugs for personal use. It works as follows:

The arrested person will still hire a lawyer or if one cannot be afforded the Public Defender will be appointed. He or she will still go through all pretrial court proceedings and in fact will go before the judge in open court and admit their guilt. The terms of the probation will be read into the record in open court. but at the end of the reading of the terms of probation the judge will put on record that he is entering a finding of guilt but he is not entering a conviction.

In Illinois, for approximately the next two years, the 410 probationer will be subject to some very stringent conditions. In Illinois those will include reporting in person once a month at the probation office, random urinalysis, drug testing and successful completion of substance abuse treatment. If you wanted to move from the jurisdiction during those two years you would be in for a lengthy process that might not be successful in the end depending on where you wanted to live. You would have the exact same probation terms and pay the same fines as any person who stood convicted of this felony. The only difference is that with 410 probation no conviction has been entered at the time you pled guilty and at the end of the term of 410 probation the charge you pled guilty to is completely dismissed.

Though there is a life/career making benefits and advantages to getting 410 probation as opposed to a felony conviction there are pitfalls. Violate any of the terms of your probation and you can be taken back to court, your 410 status can be revoked, and a conviction can then be entered. You can even be sentenced to anything that you originally could have been sentenced to under your drug charge even though it may be more than two years after your original arrest. Many many people blow it on 410 probation. You have to want to quit in order to kick it. In addition, for all but the poorest of the poor, those caught with even small amounts of cocaine pay hefty fees and costs. We're talking thousands of dollars. I'm writing another AC article on the cost involved when you are caught with a even a small amount of cocaine.

If your successful on your 410 probation, as mentioned earlier, the charge gets dismissed at the end. If a job application or interviewer asks if you have ever been convicted of a crime you can legally say answer "no". You can do the same thing during the entire course of your 410 probation. It's a chance the justice system gives people who make one mistake. In Illinois the statute allows a person to get 410 probation only once. The second time around, if there is one, they take a conviction with all its consequences. Those consequences are terribly hard to overcome.