(a) Disclosure of Prior Presentence Report to Counsel. Upon appearance of either retained
or assigned counsel and the attorney for the government on a violation of probation or
supervised release, the probation office shall be permitted to provide counsel with a copy
of the presentence report and judgment with statement of reasons from the underlying
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offense. Further, where the defendant has been previously convicted of a federal offense,
upon appearance of either retained or assigned counsel and the attorney for the
government on a new federal charge, the probation office shall be permitted to provide
counsel with a copy of the presentence report and judgment with statement of reasons
from any previous federal conviction. Finally, when the defendant is assigned new counsel
or retains new counsel for the purpose of handling an appeal to the circuit court, the
probation office shall be permitted to provide new counsel with a copy of the presentence
report and judgment with statement of reasons filed on the district court docket for the
case being appealed.
(b) Disclosure of Sentencing Recommendation. In addition to the presentence report, the
probation officer will submit a separate document entitled “Sentencing Recommendation”
to the Court. The Sentencing Recommendation is for the benefit of the Court and will not
be disclosed to the government, the defendant, defendant’s counsel or to any other person
or party, unless authorized by the sentencing judge.
The Sentencing Recommendation may be disclosed to the government and defense
counsel if authorized by the sentencing judge. Such authorization shall be communicated
to the Chief United States Probation Officer in writing or electronically and shall specify
whether the authorization applies to all of the individual sentencing judge’s cases, to a
selected type of case only or to a specific case. The sentencing judge may revoke the
authorization at any time by so notifying the Chief United States Probation Officer in
writing or electronically.
If a sentencing is scheduled before a visiting judge, the probation officer shall contact the
staff of the visiting judge to determine whether the visiting judge would like the Sentencing
Recommendation disclosed to the government and defense counsel.
