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.