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Letter to the USSC about modern sentencing data

By Douglas A. Berman

I had the honor of signing my name to a terrific letter put together last week by a group of sentencing gurus that urged the US Sentencing Commission to go further in making its sentencing data more transparent and accessible. This letter can be downloaded below, and here is how it begins: The undersigned scholars and researchers study the federal sentencing system from a variety of policy and philosophical perspectives.  As you well know, these are interesting times. Constitutional decisions by the Supreme Court revised the guideline system put in place by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (the SRA).  Legislation, both enacted and proposed, has raised important questions concerning the fairness and effectiveness of federal sentencing.  The quality of our national policy debate can be improved by empirical research, just as our sentencing practices can be improved by empirical evaluation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).