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Examining realities of crack sentencing reform

By Douglas A. Berman

USSC Commissioner John Steer and attorney Mark Allenbaugh have this new Findlaw piece, titled "The State of Federal Cocaine Sentencing Policy: Will Congress Soon Finish What the U.S. Sentencing Commission Started?".  Here is how it ends:[T]he Justice Department is rightly concerned about public safety, and a greater emphasis on re-entry programs is welcome.  Congress, therefore, should carefully monitor developments. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 envisioned a very limited, well-regulated remedial process in which judges make their sentence reduction decisions within parameters set by the Sentencing Commission. In the wake of U.S. Supreme Court decisions granting greater judicial sentencing discretion, there may be a tendency for some to exceed intended boundaries in these special, limited-purpose retroactivity proceedings...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 18, 2008 (boomark / email).