Sentencing Guidelines and Sentencing Commissions - The Second Generation (From Sentencing Reform - Guidance or Guidelines?, P 22-45, 1987, Martin Wasik and Ken Pease, eds. - See NCJ-103986)

• NCJ Number: 103988
• Author(s): M H Tonry
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Marcel Dekker, Inc
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This paper discusses 'second generation' issues and problems in U.S. jurisdictions that established sentencing commissions to set sentencing guidelines, with particular attention to Minnesota, the first State to have a sentencing commission.

Abstract

The major elements of the sentencing commission model are a commission to set guidelines, presumptive sentencing guidelines, and appellate sentence review. Of the States that have adopted this model, only Minnesota and Washington have made it work. They have developed meaningful statewide sentencing policies, implemented appellate sentence review, and achieved substantial compliance with the guidelines. Minnesota, with the older system, has encountered some problems. They include reduced compliance, disparities in nonincarcerative sentences, the use of prosecutorial plea bargaining to affect sentencing (charge reductions), and prison crowding. Other States that have instituted sentencing commissions, notably Maine, Connecticut, South Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania, have completely or largely failed to establish sentencing systems. This has been largely due to an inability to achieve compromise among opposing factions. 2 notes and 17 references.