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Pennsylvania reconsidering toughest sentencing laws due to prison overcrowding

By Douglas A. Berman

This article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which is headlined "Pa. sentencing guidelines eyed: Throw-away-the-key policy has state prisons bursting at the seams," details how Pennsylvania is being forced to rethink certain sentencing laws and policies. Here is how the effective piece starts: Faced with a serious overpopulation of its prisons and now the need to ship inmates to other states, state legislators may consider easing some harsh sentencing guidelines so that nonviolent offenders aren't automatically sent to prison for lengthy terms. State Rep. Tom Caltagirone, D-Reading, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said judges should be given more latitude in deciding on sentences for minor offenses -- leeway they don't have now due to mandatory sentencing laws approved 10 or 20 years ago in the heyday of "lock 'em up, throw away the key" thinking...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 02, 2010 (boomark / email).