Missouri Sentencing Grid: Ranges, Risk Score, and Time Served

Missouri does not have a binding sentencing grid. The Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission (MOSAC) publishes statistical tables showing how courts around the state have actually sentenced people for a given offense and criminal history, but those tables carry no legal force.¹ The hard limits on any felony sentence come from the Missouri Revised Statutes, which assign each felony to a class and set a range for that class. The judge sentences within that range using discretion guided by the facts of the case, the defendant’s history, and, if the judge chooses to look at them, the MOSAC tables.

Felony Classes and Statutory Ranges

Every felony in Missouri falls into one of five classes, and the class decides the floor and ceiling the judge has to work with.²

Class A: 10 to 30 years, or life. Second-degree murder and first-degree robbery are examples.
Class B: 5 to 15 years. Includes voluntary manslaughter and some drug trafficking offenses.
Class C: 3 to 10 years. Covers second-degree assault and certain stealing charges.
Class D: Up to 7 years, no mandatory minimum. Property crimes and lower-level drug possession often sit here.
Class E: Up to 4 years, no mandatory minimum. The lowest felony class.

First-degree murder is handled outside this system. A conviction carries life without parole, not the Class A range, so anyone reading a Class A line on a MOSAC table should not assume it covers every murder charge.

Built into every prison term is a conditional release period. Sentences of nine years or less carry a conditional release equal to one-third of the term. Sentences from nine to fifteen years carry three years of conditional release. Sentences over fifteen years carry five. These periods are part of the sentence, not added to it.²

What the MOSAC Tables Actually Show

The MOSAC tables are often called a sentencing grid, but they function as a statistical snapshot of what courts around Missouri have done, not a chart that tells a judge what to impose. For each combination of offense group and criminal history level, the tables report the percentage of offenders who received probation, the percentage who went through shock incarceration or treatment programs, and the percentage sent to prison, along with the average prison sentence imposed.¹

Judges also receive a Sentencing Assessment Report for individual cases. The report includes a recommended range expressed as mitigating, typical, and aggravating values drawn from actual sentences in similar cases statewide. A judge can see, for example, that most Level I offenders convicted of a particular Class D felony received probation while most Level IV offenders with the same charge went to prison. Nothing requires the judge to follow that pattern. The statutory range sets the legal boundaries; MOSAC just shows where a given case sits against thousands of resolved ones.

Criminal History and the Offender Risk Score

The horizontal axis of MOSAC’s tables sorts defendants into five criminal history levels based on prior felony findings of guilt and prior prison commitments.¹

Level I: No prior felony finding of guilt and no more than three misdemeanor or jail sentences of 30 days or more.
Level II: No prior prison incarceration and no more than two unrelated felony findings of guilt.
Level III: No more than one prior prison incarceration and no more than three unrelated felony findings.
Level IV: No more than two prior prison incarcerations and no more than four unrelated felony findings.
Level V: More than two prior prison incarcerations, or more than four unrelated felony findings.

Two scoring rules trip people up. Concurrent or consecutive sentences imposed by the same court on the same date count as a single finding of guilt, but cases resolved on different dates or in different courts count separately even when the underlying conduct is related. Completing a 120-day treatment program counts as a prior prison incarceration for scoring purposes, something defense attorneys sometimes overlook when sizing up a client’s history.¹

Alongside the history level, the Sentencing Assessment Report assigns an offender risk score from −8 to 7. The score blends criminal history with factors research has linked to recidivism: age, education, employment, substance abuse, probation or parole revocations, prior escape, and whether the current offense fits a recidivism pattern. The total sorts the defendant into a risk category of Good (2 to 7), Above Average (0 to 1), Average (−1 to −3), Below Average (−4 to −5), or Poor (−6 to −8). The report cross-references that category against the offense group to show the judge how similar offenders have been sentenced across the state.¹

Enhancements That Move the Range Up a Class

The statutory range is not the end of the story if the defendant qualifies as a persistent or dangerous offender. Under § 558.016, a defendant in either category who is convicted of a Class B, C, D, or E felony is sentenced as if the crime were one class higher.³

A persistent offender has been found guilty of two or more felonies committed at different times, or has a prior conviction for a dangerous felony. A dangerous offender knowingly endangered or threatened another person’s life during the current felony and has a prior Class A or B felony, or a prior dangerous felony. Any prior finding of guilt used for the enhancement must predate the current offense.³

The one-class bump matters. A persistent offender convicted of a Class D felony faces the Class C range of 3 to 10 years rather than up to 7. A persistent offender convicted of a Class B felony faces the Class A range of 10 to 30 years instead of 5 to 15.

How Much of the Sentence Must Be Served

The number on the judgment is not the number served. Anyone convicted of a “dangerous felony” under § 556.061 must serve at least 85% of the sentence before becoming parole-eligible. The only exception: an offender who turns 70 after serving at least 40% may be considered at that point.⁴

For felonies that are not on the dangerous-felony list, the minimum term before parole eligibility depends on how many prior prison commitments the defendant has:

One prior prison commitment: 40% of the sentence, or 30% at age 70.
Two prior prison commitments: 50%, or 40% at age 70.
Three or more: 80%, or 40% at age 70.

These minimums override other provisions of law, including parole board discretion. A defendant with three prior prison stints who picks up a new Class C felony and draws a 10-year sentence will serve at least eight years before being considered for release.⁴

The dangerous-felony list under § 556.061 is specific. It includes second-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree domestic assault, first-degree rape and sodomy, first- and second-degree child molestation, first-degree kidnapping and child kidnapping, first-degree robbery, armed criminal action, first-degree arson, first-degree elder abuse, certain vehicle and bus hijackings, intoxication-related offenses by habitual offenders, and conspiracy to commit any of the above.⁵ If the current charge is not on that list, the 85% rule does not apply even when the offense sounds violent. Second-degree domestic assault, for instance, is not a dangerous felony unless the victim qualifies as a special victim. The specific statutory charge controls, not the common name.

Multiple Counts: Concurrent or Consecutive

When a defendant is convicted of more than one felony, the default under § 558.026 is that the sentences run concurrently. A judge who wants them stacked has to say so on the record. The default has real consequences for how time is actually served: three Class D convictions with 5-year sentences each produce 5 years of exposure if the sentences run concurrently, 15 if they run consecutively. Judges ordering consecutive terms typically point to separate victims, crimes at different times or places, or an escalating pattern.

When Probation Replaces Prison

A felony conviction does not always mean prison. Missouri courts can suspend execution of a sentence and place a defendant on probation, and the MOSAC data shows that at Levels I and II for Class D and E felonies, a majority of offenders have historically received probation.¹ Shock incarceration and treatment programs, often 120 days followed by supervised release, sit between straight probation and a full prison term, and show up in the tables under the “Shk/Trt” column. Completing one still counts as a prior prison incarceration for future scoring, which is a tradeoff worth understanding before agreeing to one.

Probation becomes rarer as the felony class rises and as criminal history deepens. For Level IV and V defendants on serious charges, the data overwhelmingly shows prison, not because probation is legally off the table for most offenses but because judges rarely grant it in those cases.

What Decides Where Within the Range

Missouri law directs the sentencing judge to consider “the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and character of the defendant.” That is broad on purpose. Factors that commonly push a sentence higher include use of a weapon, serious injury to the victim, a leadership role in a criminal scheme, and crimes against children or elderly victims. Factors that commonly push it lower include a clean record, a minor role, genuine remorse, mental health issues, and a personal history of abuse. Evidence of any of these can come from a pre-sentence investigation report, witness or victim testimony, or the defendant’s statement to the court.⁶

Two defendants convicted of the same Class C felony with identical history levels can land in very different places. One might get probation; the other, seven years. The MOSAC data shows the range of outcomes other judges have reached. The specific facts of the case decide where this one falls.

1
Missouri Department of Corrections. Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission User Guide
2
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 558.011 – Sentence of Imprisonment, Terms – Conditional Release
3
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 558.016 – Extended Terms for Prior Criminal Conduct – Definitions – Sentencing
4
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 558.019 – Prior Felony Convictions, Minimum Prison Terms
5
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 556.061
6
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 557.036