The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing’s sentencing guidelines first went into effect on July 22, 1982, and applied to all crimes committed from that date forward. They were amended in June 1983, January 1986, and June 1986.

On October 7, 1987, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated all guidelines due to a procedural error that occurred in 1981 when the Legislature rejected the Commission’s initial set of guidelines. With unanimous support from the General Assembly, the guidelines were repromulgated and became effective April 25, 1988.

Since then, the Commission periodically has reviewed and revised its guidelines to keep them current. Amendments in 1991 helped identify defendants for the new county intermediate punishment program and later for the new boot camp program. A comprehensive review of the guidelines led to a revised set effective in 1994. The Commission made further revisions in 1997 and again in 2005, to incorporate new DUI laws and state intermediate punishment.

The sentencing guidelines were most recently revised to iintegrate recently enacted legislation and to promote greater utilization of sentencing options such as fines, community service, and intermediate punishments. These were effective December 5, 2008.

A review of the guidelines is anticipated to coincide with the close of each legislative session. The set of sentencing guidelines applied is dependent upon the date of offense. See the effective date of sentencing guideline chart.