Sentencing Practices Under the Sentencing Reform Act, Fiscal Year 1987

• NCJ Number: 118186
• Author(s): D L Fallen
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 103 pages
• Corporate Author: Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Cmssn
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report evaluates felony sentences under the Washington State Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) for fiscal year 1987.

Abstract

These sentencing practices are compared to the State's first year's experience under the SRA, as well as pre-SRA (fiscal year 1982) baseline data gathered by the Sentencing Guidelines Commission. Violent offenses continued to have a higher imprisonment rate than under pre-SRA sentencing practices. Sentencing consistency has been significantly increased under the SRA. The variability of sentence lengths for offenders with identical offender scores and seriousness levels was 47 percent less than in 1982. Judges imposed a guideline sentence in the vast majority of cases. Only 3.6 percent of sentences were exceptional sentences. Nearly half of all offenders qualified for the first-time offender waiver, and of these, 40 percent were sentenced under this provision. The distribution of crimes within the offense seriousness levels was somewhat elevated compared to 1985 and appears related to the drug enforcement initiatives. There were 1,776 fewer inmates in prison as of June 1987 than there would have been under the prior indeterminate sentencing system. There was a lower rate of jury trials and a higher rate of guilty pleas in 1987 relative to 1982. 45 tables, 12 figures.