What is the difference between mandatory & discretionary conditions?
Federal law governs the mandatory conditions of federal probation (the law breaks it down into a list of mandatory conditions (required) and discretionary conditions (not required).[912]
- Mandatory conditions are the rules that judges must impose.
- Discretionary conditions are the rules that judges can, but do not have to, impose.
If a judge wants to impose a discretionary condition, he or she MUST find that the condition reasonably relates to sentencing factors,[913] and is reasonably necessary for the purposes of supervision.[914]
The only difference to note is that intermittent confinement may be imposed as a condition of probation during the first year of federal probation. Intermittent confinement means temporarily going into Bureau of Prisons (BOP) custody for a night, a weekend, or possibly for a longer period of time.[915]