Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

AG Eric Holder stating that DOJ sentencing recommendations will be released "later this year"

By Douglas A. Berman

Long-time readers may recall that I was pleased when, way back in early 2009, then-new Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department was conducting a comprehensive internal review of federal sentencing and corrections issues.  I was pleased in part because AG Holder and others had intimated that DOJ would go public with the results of this review and make reform recommendations to Congress and the US Sentencing Commission. But then as 2009 turned to 2010 (and early 2010 turned to late 2010) without any formal public report from DOJ on these issues, I came to the unhappy conclusion that the prevailing political winds had led to a determination by DOJ that it should not make public the result of its internal review.  So, I was both surprised and excited to discover this paragraph deep in a public speech delivered by AG this past Friday at the 2010 Bench/Bar Conference in Pennsylvania (with my emphasis added): Over the past year, we have also been reevaluating federal sentencing and corrections policies to ensure that the proper balance is struck in promoting public safety, punishing criminals, avoiding unwarranted sentencing disparities, and reducing recidivism...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 21, 2010 (boomark / email).