I was just told by my lawyer that when I tell them I WILL do the 2 years for DWI3, they will schedule a time when I have to go in and do a presentencing investigation, before I actually go in. Does anyone know how indepth this is. If I have something on my record from 1989 in VA are they going to use that? I am in TX and my lawyer said that's what they will be doing is asking me if I have ever had anything in any other states and stuff????? ANYONE??????? HELP PLEASE.

The purpose of the presentence investigation is to make your "past" known to the court. It can be quite thurough depending on who does it. If someone is lazy-they might miss out-of-state convictions. My advice to you would be to be honest. The worst thing that can happen in a presentence investigation report (which will be given to the Judge prior to sentencing) is to lie.

Unfortunately, although it always is not the case, honesty is best!

I wish you luck.

Thank you Chris, I pm"d you.

TXChick - my experience with presentencing investigation is that it is VERY thorough. They look at EVERYTHING. Where you've worked, where you went to school, even what your parents did for a living. So if I were you, I would not lie. This is the document that the judge uses for sentencing, so everything you've done in the past will be on there. Don't be caught offguard thinking that they won't find out what you've done in the past. They will.

PSI is a questionnaire/interview done usually by someone who actually works for probation and parole..
You'll get a quiz about every place you ever lived, and if you have any tattoos, scars, distinquishing marks....

When you get to court if anyone asks if you 'waive' your PSI, say NO. What they are asking is, do you want to see it, or do you want it to be some great mystery to you forever.
Waiving your PSI (much as it IS about YOU) will put you in a goofy spot where you'll need a court order from another sympathetic judge to be given a copy of it.
NOT Waiving your PSI will mean that a copy of it will be given to you and your attorney to review and to have an hold for a rainy day.

Beyond YOU being the source for your own PSI info,.. they will do an NCIC search and an FBI 'spin'... That second transaction will give you an FBI SPN # which will forever be linked to your social security number... If you ever had passport travel in your future it's the SPN that will haunt you long after you've left Texas.

What the NCIC will do (if it applies) will come up reading
NCIC Hits --0-. or if it has a real number --each will be followed by compressed information about the state with a case linked to you.
FBI will hopefully read "No Wants, No Warrants".

Not to startle you about the waiver thing, but I feel really strongly about it. Given that you are doing felony time for a 'status offense' of multiple DUIs, you should have that in your hand. Since they are giving you felony time for the # you have under your belt, you should certainly have some record created by them which depicts specifically that you indeed have X amount of priors. It's good bookkeeping.

In KY status offenses run amok. Driving on Suspended can get you a felony... if you're a 2 time loser they'll give you the PFO on it and jump up another felony for general principle.
Every now and again a 'status' offense cuts the other way.
A woman in a crack bust plead to 7 years because her attorney said she could get 10 if she took it to trial. Possession,.. not distribution. Well, as it happens,.. the SECOND offense carries 5-10, and this woman had no prior drug conviction which would have meant that her charge would have only carried 1-5. PROVING she was a first offender in this case was done after she'd gotten sentenced, got upstate, and trotted herself into legal aid. Good news, she HAD her PSI in her property. Her atty was asleep at the switch on the other issue, but he managed to give her the means to get OUT by accident.

The other good reason for having your PSI is that a copy of it is in your parole file. If they've read it, bygod you should have too.

I guess like someone said it all depends on who does it. My husband's was a joke and they didn't even talk to me or the kids etc...The guy called my husband's mom of all people--he hadn't lived at home for years....There was nothing on there about his college, career, and half the information spots were blank or misinformation....

It ranks right up there with the judge never read the stack of character referance letters we had.....

Hope your's goes better than this...

Deb

I happened to read my guy's PSI last December, while going thru all the documents from his case. Talk about thorough. I've known him for nearly fifteen years and knew pretty much anything and everything about him but there was stuff in there even I wasn't aware of. I figure it's pretty much a 50/50 toss-up... there's probably just as many out there like Deb's husband with blank spots and misinformation, in the case of my boyfriend's they dotted every I and crossed every T and then some...

Thanks guys! You've all been a trememndous help! That has been weighing on my mind ever since i heard it.
:eek:

My PI was not thorough... My lawyer told me not to say anything about my priors and to let them find them out on there own. I am not saying to lie, but just to do what your lawyer says, even if he/she is court appointed. I don't even think they know of most of my priors, but they are all minor so it wouldn't matter much anyway... Good Luck.

I will be going into Leavenworth in May for a 15 month stint...

oh, my cousin is in leavenworth Ks. That is not a good prsion, sorry, but it is not. And sense they got that new warden, it is even worse.
When they do the psi, they will know everything. Good luck

One more thing, someone said it is done by the BPP??? Or given to them? Is even something unrelated like bad credit or something going to make the parole board sway their opinion because they think I'm irresponsible? Or am I getting too paranoid?

Probation and Parole are dispatched by the court to perform the investigation. They will send a P&P officer to conduct your interview. They submit their report to the Court.
I've never seen a PSI that included credit info.
They are generally looking for old cases (settled)
and
wants or warrants. They want to know if they've snagged Dillenger by accident.

lol~ok....well I will rest assured now. Thanks for everyone's help! You all have so much knowledge on all of this, don't know what I would do without this site!

is the presentence investigation something done in addition to the interview given to you by the pretrial services in fed?

Pretrial service interview (in State at least) is done to determine your identity and your assets--for the purposes of seeing if you qualify for public defense, The upshot of that interview is to fill in the blanks on a form to attach to an application for indigent defense (or not) and/or to give someone higher up a sense of how much bail you could post, if that applies.
Feds may have more/less purpose to their pretrial interview..

i know that they ran a report to show any prior convictions and called my husband for a brief interview. i had already reatined an attorney at that time so i guess they should have know i didn't need one. i have to check in with them weekly and report any overnight travel as well as address changes...who knows