Trespassing in Madison County, Florida

Madison County prosecutors secure guilty verdicts in nearly 90 percent of trespassing cases, a rate substantially higher than the statewide guilty average and paired with a dismissal rate of 2.3 percent—1.5 percentage points below Florida's statewide dismissal average of 3.8 percent. The withheld adjudication rate of 8.0 percent falls notably below the statewide average of 11.5 percent, indicating that judges in Madison County are less likely to preserve the defendant's record by withholding formal adjudication. The county also uses no pre-trial diversion programs for trespassing, whereas statewide 3.1 percent of defendants avoid conviction through diversion completion.

Confinement is common in Madison County trespassing cases: nearly 65 percent of defendants receive jail time, with an average sentence of 32 days and a median of 12 days. Probation follows in most sentences, averaging 365 days. Fines average $350. Public defenders represent the majority of defendants at 56.8 percent, while only 2.3 percent retain private counsel, indicating limited financial resources in the defendant population.