Building a Sentencing Reform Agenda: The ABA's New Sentencing Standards

• NCJ Number: 153556
• Journal: Judicature Volume: 78 Issue: 4 Dated: (January-February 1995) Pages: 189-195
• Author(s): K R Reitz; C R Reitz
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The American Bar Association (ABA) relied on the positive experiences of State-based sentencing commissions and guidelines to develop its updated Standards for Criminal Justice Sentencing, which was approved and published in 1994.

Abstract

The standards include four major proposals. First, every jurisdiction should establish a permanent sentencing commission or equivalent agency. Second, the agency should create determinate sentencing provisions to guide the use of discretion by sentencing courts. Third, the legislature and agency should design the sentencing system so that aggregate sentences are matched with correctional resources. Fourth, the legislature and agency should expand the use of sanctions other than imprisonment. In the ABA's view, sentencing should operate as a system rather than as a series of ad hoc decisions by judges and parole officials. The drafting history of the standards reveals several recurring and reassuring features of the ABA's long process of developing an agenda for sentencing reform. Footnotes