Project Exile is a federal program started in Richmond, Virginia, in 1997. Project Exile shifted the prosecution of illegal technical gun possession offenses to federal court, where they carried a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison under the federal Gun Control Act of 1968, rather than in state court. Note that federal law (18 U.S. Code § 922(g) & 924) provides for a penalty of ten years in federal prison for being a "prohibited person", i.e., a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, as well as for falsifying information in order to obtain one, or furnishing a gun to a convicted felon. The program has since been copied by several other cities, sometimes under other names. In Atlanta, for example, the program was known as FACE 5 (Firearms in Atlanta Can Equal 5 years in federal prison). While many have discontinued or modified their programs, Project Exile is still in effect in Rochester, New York. Origin and implementation The program was designed to address the gang violence which had plagued Richmond. At the time of its inception, the level of murders and shootings had regularly increased each year, with Richmond's murder-per-capita rates being one of the highest five for the country. In 1997, 140 people were murdered, 122 of them with firearms. There was strong community support for federal intervention. The African American community was being devastated by the violence (80% of all the homicide victims in Richmond were African-American). Half of the victims had no prior criminal record and many were innocent bystanders, the result of drug dealers' poor marksmanship and wild shooting at targets of opportunity. The guiding principle of the program was to remove from the streets those who were mostly likely to commit gun violence: criminals with guns. This included convicted felons caught with guns (federal law prohibits felons from owning firearms) and those who committed crimes with a gun. It also intended to deter would be-offenders with strict sentencing, specifically longer sentences with no possibility of bail or early release. Project Exile was named for the idea that if the police catch a criminal in Richmond with a gun in a crime, the criminal has forfeited his right to remain in this community, will face immediate federal prosecution and stiff mandatory federal prison sentences (often five years), and will thus be "exiled" to federal prison, often far away from the criminal's