Sentencing Guidelines: The Search for Fairness: A Report on the Fourth Annual Retreat of the Council on Criminal Justice

• NCJ Number: 135525
• Author(s): T Goldstein; S B Rosenfeld
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 36 pages
• Corporate Author: New York State Bar Assoc
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprinted from the Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, V 40, N 2, March 1985

Annotation

Participants in the November 1984 retreat of the Council on Criminal Justice of the New York Bar Association reviewed the draft of the sentencing guidelines proposed by the New York State Sentencing Guidelines Committee.

Abstract

The participants included judges, legislators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, other attorneys, and public officials. They reviewed the sentencing grid, the role of good time allowances, factors under which a judge could depart from the prescribed range of sentences, and appeals of sentences. They agreed that the rationale of guidelines sentencing -- that similarly situated offenders be handled in a similar manner -- would not solve the crime problems and should not be publicized as doing so. On other issues, they disagreed. Defense attorneys believed that some provisions were too harsh, prosecutors regarded some provisions as too lenient, judges wanted to retain discretion to reduce sentences, and prosecutors wanted to limit this discretion. Chart