When then-Mayor Milton Milan was convicted in December of taking bribes from mobsters and contractors, laundering drug money and skimming campaign funds, federal prosecutors estimated he was facing 11 to 14 years in prison.

But after Milan is sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano, he'll likely be able to make plans for early 2005.

What shrank the numbers? In part, the relatively low amount of money involved in his crimes, the lack of violence in carrying them out and his lack of a criminal record, according to defense attorneys who practice in federal court.

Milan was convicted Dec. 21 of 14 counts of corruption. He was immediately imprisoned and stripped the next day of the office he had held since July 1, 1997. A jury found that he took up to $30,000 in payoffs from the mob, which was looking for city business; illegally accepted thousands of dollars in free home improvements; used $7,500 in campaign funds for a Puerto Rican vacation and other personal expenses; staged a burglary to collect several thousand dollars in insurance payments; and hid the source of $65, 000 he borrowed from a drug kingpin.

"This was the Kmart of criminal activity," said Glenn Zeitz, an attorney from Haddonfield.

A draft of a pre-sentence report, prepared in March by the federal probation department, put Milan's sentence in the range of 46 to 57 months - or just under four years to just short of five years.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, judges are bound by a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offenses, and the defendant's criminal history, if any. Representatives of the probation department did not respond to requests for details on how they computed their recommendation for Milan.

Milan's incarceration began Dec. 22 when Pisano revoked his bail hours after the jury verdict, and those months in prison will be credited to his sentence. There is no parole in the federal prison system. Defendants, however, can be released after serving 85 percent of their term if they do not violate any rules.

Milan's prison term will be followed by a period of supervised release. He will be barred forever from possessing a firearm, and also could be barred from seeking public office. He may petition the government after his supervision ends for the right to vote.

Because Milan is not considered a security risk, he could be assigned to the Federal Correctional Institution at Fairton in Cumberland County, where he now is housed, or at Fort Dix, said Donald Manno, another attorney who practices in federal court. He would most likely serve his final six months in a halfway house.

Pisano will decide if Milan must pay a fine and if he must share in the restitution for the phony break-in. Almost every condition is set by the sentencing guidelines, which went into effect in 1987 to create uniform terms nationally for federal offenses.

Working your way through the charts and graphs is like middle-school math, said defense attorney John Call of Mount Holly. You chart the offense, the defendant's criminal background and the extent of financial loss. Abuse of public trust kicks the number up a bit, and the appropriate sentence is where the lines cross.