Leonard

I. Background

Defendant Earl Dejon Leonard was convicted in 1998 of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g) and 924(c). For that offense he was sen- tenced to serve a prison term of six years, to be followed by three years of supervised release. He was released from prison and began the supervised release in April 2004. Among other conditions of his release, Leonard was to find regular work, stay off drugs, submit urine samples for drug testing, and tell his supervising probation officer of any contact with the police.

By February 2006, Leonard had violated all four of these conditions. Leonard reported only $324.50 of earnings from July and August 2005, and he provided no other proof of employment. He also tested positive for illegal drugs 23 times between February 2005 and February 2006, failed to report for several drug tests, and failed to tell his probation officer of at least six contacts with the police. The probation officer filed a notice of violation with the district court. Leonard did not contest the violations. He asked for a sentence at the low end of the Sentencing Guidelines range. The range calculated for someone in…