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"Clean Slate: Expanding Expungements & Pardons For Non-Violent Federal Offenders"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this new article by Lahny Silva now available via SSRN. Here is the abstract: Over the past forty years, the United States Congress has passed legislation expanding the federal criminal code intruding into an area typically reserved to the states.  The "tough on crime" rhetoric of the 80s and 90s brought with it the enactment of various legislative initiatives: harsh mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent federal offenders, "truth in sentencing" laws that restricted or abolished parole and early release, and strict liability disqualifications from employment and federal benefits based solely on the fact of conviction. The effect of this legislation was the creation of a new criminal class: a federal prison population...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 24, 2010 (boomark / email).