If you’re on probation and not sitting in jail, count yourself lucky. The US Justice System can be brutal, but that doesn’t mean you should see probation as a walk in the park. When you’re put on probation, you’re expected to follow rules and guidelines to get to a point where you’re entirely independent once again.

Whether or not you violated your probation intentionally, you still need the knowledge for what to do in your situation and how the court will proceed. In this article, we’ll tell you exactly what happens if you violate your probation and the events that follow that violation.

How Do You Violate Probation?

First, we need to talk about what is described as violating probation:

• If you fail to comply with a court order or to check in with your probation officer
• If you commit a new crime while being on probation
• If you fail to pay your court fines, fees, and other dues
• If you remove the monitoring device assigned to you
• If you are found with firearms
• If you are found with alcohol or other drugs

In Arizona specifically, these could also constitute as probation violations:

• If you leave the respective jurisdiction
• If you fail to return to said jurisdiction by the time approved by your probation officer
• If you fail to attend a court-ordered program or classes
• If you contact someone who has a protective order in place
• If you missed a drug test or are selling illegal substances
• If you were arrested for another of offense, no matter the severity

What Happens Next?

These are all fairly straight forward, but you’d be amazed how easy it is to do one of these by accident or from carelessness. Usually, you should have a warning on your first time. Warnings are also considered if the crime you committed was a first-time offense or your crime was less severe.

This still means immediate jail time, even if the crime isn’t severe. If you had committed another crime prior to the crime you committed to be on probation, that also adds onto the possibility of you getting a warning, which unfortunately is lower in that case.

If you didn’t get a warning or this is your second time violating probation, then the probation officer can ask the court to revoke your probation, usually through a petition. After this happens, you will be asked to appear in court to speak formally with a judge about the violation (or violations if you had a warning to your first violation of probation). Arizona specifically doesn’t have a set rule as to what happens immediately after a probation is reported.

What Happens in Court?

While in court, you’ll have to appeal to the court on whether or not you committed the violation. Though, it’s probably in your best interest not to lie to the judge.

As with normal court hearings, witnesses may be called to hear both sides and explain their perspective. They can also have the witness discuss the probation terms and violations. In order to appeal to the court in your favor, you and your attorney will have to show the court that your probation was revoked unjustly in order to successfully appeal.

If the judge finds that a violation hasn’t occurred, then you’ll simply go back onto probation with the original terms. If the judge finds there was a violation, however, you could possibly face returning to incarceration or even face additional restrictions for your probation.

Another option is you could face house arrest, which is considered intensive probation. Other restrictions may or may not include:

• Urinalysis or breath samples
• Being required to update the probation office of plans to leave for work or other activities that have been pre-approved

What Happens in Arizona?

In Arizona specifically, violating your probation can add up to five years on your overall sentence and possibly have you incarcerated. If it’s a minor conviction, it’ll only add up to two years. According to the rules for revocation as identified in A.R.S. 13-901, if you’re serving more than one probationary term concurrently, you may be sentenced to the terms of imprisonment consecutively.

However, if this included serving one year of jail time and you’re also on lifetime probation after that, your current jail time can be altered to whatever the court sees fit. Worse off is that the judge could decide that you lost your chance of simply having probation and have you incarcerated for an agreed upon time, depending on the severity of your crime.

Basically, you don’t want to intentionally violate your probation because probation is still better than jail time. If you feel that the court is incorrect in thinking you violated your probation, you need to make sure you appeal with evidence and your whereabouts for that violation.

Overall, the most desirable outcome, no matter if you violated your probation or not, is that you will simply carry out the terms of your probation as were previously agreed upon.

How to Best Argue Your Case

There’s only so much we can tell you that will help your case. Your best course of action is to immediately contact a defense attorney in Arizona to craft a defense. They will be knowledgeable and experienced in helping you best fight your case.

Here are some tips when looking for a defense attorney to best fight your case:

• Someone who has at least 30 years of experience as a criminal defense attorney
• Someone who is a former prosecutor, so they have more background knowledge
• Someone who is rated highly online by other offenders
• Someone who is also recommended by former clients

There are also specific guidelines your court may have had you follow that we haven’t outlined here. Your defense attorney will be able to discuss the specifics of those and explain your violation, depending if you committed this violation.

Summary

Our best advice to you: don’t violate your probation. Probation is a godsend compared to adding years to your sentence or even being incarcerated. The rules are simple:

• Don’t commit another crime while on probation or get arrested.
• Don’t do drugs or get caught with illegal substances.
• Don’t disrespect your probation officer; they’re trying to help you.
• Pay your dues to the court on time and don’t miss any classes or other programs the court requires you to attend.
• And the most important, don’t have a habit of committing crimes.

With being on probation, you probably have realized whatever crime you committed isn’t worth the time of being on probation or potentially imprisoned. Treat this as a learning experience and take note of the things that went wrong and how to avoid them next time.

It might not feel like it in the moment, but the judge and court are trying to help you. Whatever crime you committed; they want to make sure you don’t commit another crime again. This is definitely evident in the programs and even counselling they require you to attend.

But most importantly, if your defense attorney did all the groundwork for you to make your sentence as short as possible, think about recommending to them if anyone in your life finds themselves in trouble.