NCJ Number
146353
Date Published
1993
Length
59 pages
Annotation
The first sentencing commission, created to develop and implement standards for sentencing, was established in 1978.
Abstract
This essay examines the experience with sentencing commissions in relation to the effects of their guidelines on sentencing and corrections trends and in relation to institutional characteristics including specialized competence, insulation from short-term emotionalism and political pressures, and a systemic approach to policymaking. Major policy issues that have confronted current commissions, and which future commissions will also have to address, include major systemic issues such as creating guidelines for noncustodial sanctions and misdemeanors, tying sentencing policy to corrections resources, and controlling plea bargaining, as well as evolutionary issues such as scaling offenses and weighing criminal histories. The author concludes that, while commissions can attain and sustain specialized institutional competence of various kinds, they have severe limits as policy tools. 8 tables, 5 figures, 10 notes, 124 references, and 1 appendix