We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

JUDGE BLASTS SENTENCING REFORM ACT

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has taken some heat recently because he – like everyone else at the time – supported the 1994 crime control bill that so contributed to mass incarceration. But a federal judge writing in last Sunday’s Washington Post said critics should not stop with 1994.

Eastern District of Wisconsin Judge Lynn Adelman wrote that the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the Guidelines “have been a disaster, and a debate by lawmakers about their status is long overdue.” Partly due to the sentencing guidelines, about 20% of all people imprisoned in the world are imprisoned in the United States (which has 4.27% of the world population) “The Sentencing Reform Act, and the commission and its guidelines,” the Judge said, “contributed substantially to this inexcusable state of affairs.”

The judge noted that after the Guidelines became advisory in the 2005 United States v. Booker case, the average federal sentence increased from 28 to 50 months and, with the abolition of parole, the average time a defendant served increased from 13 to 43 months. Between 1987 and 2019, the number of federal prisoners increased from about 50,000 to 219,000 before dropping to about 180,000.

Even after the Guidelines became advisory instead of mandatory, Judge Adelman complained, “district court judges have largely failed to… ameliorate the harshness of the federal sentencing system.” After Booker, average sentences dropped from 47.9 months to 44 months, but the percentage of defendants receiving prison-only sentences increased from 83.3% in 2003 to 87.8% in 2018.

The Judge argues that the Sentencing Reform Act should be substantially revised. “Congress was foolish to have abolished parole,” he wrote, “and should overturn that decision.”

Washington Post, There’s another tough-on-crime law Democrats should focus their criticism on (June 30)

– Thomas L. Root