The Maryland General Assembly created the Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy (MSCCSP) in 1999 as an independent agency to support fair and proportional sentencing policy and to maintain the State’s voluntary sentencing guidelines for criminal cases sentenced in the circuit courts. The MSCCSP is responsible for collecting and automating the sentencing guidelines worksheets, maintaining the sentencing guidelines database, monitoring circuit court sentencing practice, adopting changes to the guidelines consistent with the sentencing practices of Maryland circuit court judges, and providing training and orientation to criminal justice practitioners who apply the sentencing guidelines.
News
January 1, 2026:
The MSCCSP released new versions of the Maryland Sentencing Guidelines Manual (MSGM) and the Guidelines Offense Table, effective January 1, 2026. These updates include: (1) revisions to the Guidelines Offense Table; (2) instructions for calculating sentencing guidelines for multiple violations, including contemporaneous violations, of CR, § 4-204 or CR, § 4-306(b); and (3) a revision to the definition of psychological victim injury in the sentencing guidelines Offense Score (MSGM, 6.1.B. Victim Injury). The January 2026 Guidelines E-News provides further details about these updates, as well as a note regarding the Maryland Automated Guidelines System (MAGS).
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