Racial disparities in stays of imposition under the Minnesota sentencing guidelines

A vast literature has documented evidence of racial and ethnic inequalities in criminal sentencing, yet scholarship on disparities in the assignment of non-stigmatizing alternatives to conventional probation and incarceration remains underdeveloped. In Minnesota, the sentencing guidelines allow court actors to assign a “stay of imposition,” which includes a charge reduction from a felony to a misdemeanor upon successful completion of a probation term. Accordingly, this sanction allows convicted individuals to avoid certain collateral consequences of a felony conviction regarding access to housing and employment. Limited prior research has examined possible racial/ethnic inequalities in stays of imposition, and whether these disparities vary according to the presumptive disposition specified by the guidelines has not been considered. Analyses of data on felony cases sentenced in Minnesota district courts between 2011 and 2022 ( N = 188,531) reveal that Black, Native American, and Hispanic defendants are less likely than Whites and Asians to receive stays of imposition. Moreover, similar patterns generally emerge regardless of whether the stay of imposition is a within-guidelines sentence or involves a downward dispositional departure. These findings have notable implications for guidelines reform, as racial/ethnic inequities persist via the unregulated discretion typically afforded to judges over sentencing alternatives.