Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

Re: petit larceny

The SIS is normally available only to first time offenders in the Commonwealth and usually only to those who are charged with a misdemeanor rather than a felony offense. Whether it is offered to the defendant is usually within the discretion of the prosecutor. (However, I did have one case a few years back in Arlington where the prosecutor declined to offer it to my client but I succeeded in persuading the judge at sentencing to allow for it.)

Probation is a period during which a convicted offender not being held in custody is ordered by the court to remain under the supervision of a probation officer(although there is also unsupervised probation)in order to fullfill certain conditions of this probationary period which might include such things as completing a required amount of community service, making restitution and paying fines, and, most importantly, remaining on good behaviour and not getting rearrested----for anything whatsoever.

However, if the convicteed offender happens to violate the conditions of the probation during the probationary period, then he or she can be brought back before the court and whatever part of the original sentence that was suspended may then be fully imposed by the court if it so chooses.

Re: petit larceny

I neglected to add to my previous posted answer that, yes, courts do allow for the transfer of probation to another state.