...Stephen R. Sady Retroactive amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines, such as Amendment 821 to the calculation of criminal history, confer discretion on judges to reduce sentences when the Sentencing Commission determines that a guideline is overly harsh. The statute on retroactive...

... the book’s golden anniversary, explores the role that Frankel and his book had in shaping modern sentencing discourse and what lessons they offer for the future. © 2023 Vera Institute of Justice. All rights reserved. 2023 Criminal Sentences Sentencing Sentencing Commission Punishment Criminal Law...

..., and cost-effective punishment. The essay therefore proposes several further reforms, any of which would improve even the best state guideline systems. © 2023 Vera Institute of Justice. All rights reserved. 2023 sentencing guideline sentencing commission sentencing disparity sentencing reform...

... the guidance might play out in specific legislative proposals, and as a more aspirational North Star in which sentences to incarceration are strongly limited. © 2023 Vera Institute of Justice. All rights reserved. 2023 Sentencing Sentencing Commission Punishment Criminal Law Mass Incarceration...

...Michael Tonry Marvin Frankel’s characterization of American sentencing in Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order remarkably successfully distilled ideas that were in the air and emerging. His main proposals—a sentencing commission, sentencing rules, requirements that judges explain their decisions...

... power from courts, and numeric algorithms transform common sense punishment concepts into disfigured policies that often drive excessive and deficient sentences; and then, even worse, the system drives a perpetual cycle of further disfigurement. The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s reaction to Frankel’s...

... from the restrictive Sentencing Commission policy statement that limited the circumstances under which judges could grant relief. Exercising that newfound discretion, judges began granting sentencing reductions for reasons not enumerated in the outdated policy statement, such as COVID-19 and excessive...

... Assembly within eighteen months. At that time, sentencing guidelines were an innovation, and Pennsylvania was in the vanguard of states establishing sentencing commissions. The adoption of sentencing guidelines was viewed as a means of structuring the exercise of discretion by judges and providing...

...Stephen R. Sady As the Sentencing Commission revives after years without a quorum, a top priority should be to address a statutory duty that has been neglected since the Commission’s inception: the mandatory obligation under 28 U.S.C. § 994(g) to make recommendations regarding the Bureau of Prisons...

...Lynn Adelman; Jon Deitrich Freshly stocked with members, the Sentencing Commission has the opportunity to push federal sentencing in the right direction. The Commission should press Congress to abolish mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Such provisions prevent judges from imposing individualized...

...Steven L. Chanenson; Douglas A. Berman As the famed legal scholar Yogi Berra once observed, “It’s like deja vu all over again.” Those wise words can describe the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Once again, we find ourselves with a fresh, full-strength Commission brimming with all the promise...

... States Sentencing Commission. The Biden Administration has made clear its commitment to diversity in nominating candidates to the federal bench, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the U.S. Marshal Service. We write to explain the profound importance of extending this commitment to the Administration’s...

... added perspective to a rapidly changing world that still often seems hard to fully grasp. © 2020 Vera Institute of Justice. All rights reserved. 2020 sentencing reform COVID racial justice sentencing commission E D I T O R S O B S E R V A T I O N S Seeking Criminal Justice Clarity amid...

... blocked from petitioning their sentencing court by the Bureau of Prisons. Importantly, courts are empowered to find grounds for release beyond those specifically enumerated in the now-outdated Sentencing Commission policy statement that formerly restricted compassionate release decisions. After observing...

...Rachel E. Barkow This essay explores how the role of the United States Sentencing Commission has changed over time. It has gone through three different phases in terms of its role (either actual or perceived) in federal sentencing. The first phase covers the Commission at its inception...

... the continued constitutional fallout from Blakely , and the current policy debates that have come to define modern sentencing systems. © 2014 Vera Institute of Justice 2014 Sentencing punishment crime Blakely Supreme Court mass incarceration sentencing guidelines Congress Sentencing Commission...

...Todd Haugh The United States Sentencing Commission has drawn much criticism over the years. Stakeholders have impugned the institutional structure of the Commission and the operation of the Guidelines, and they’ve even attacked the Commissioners themselves. While many of the criticisms...

...Frank O. Bowman, III These Editor's Observations introduce Volume 24, Number 5 of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, an issue devoted to renewed discussion in Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission about whether there is a need for legislative action to revise or replace the advisory federal...

... system, one of which — that originally proposed by the Constitution Project and more recently endorsed by Judge William Sessions, former Chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission — is markedly superior to the present system. Third, the difficult problem is not designing a sentencing mechanism better than...