Fifteen years of guidelines sentencing: An assessment of how well the Federal criminal justice system isachieving the goals of sentencing reform

Abstract

In order to inject transparency, consistency, and fairness into the sentencing process,Congress passed the SRA, which established the United States Sentencing Commission [hereinafterthe Commission] and charged it with establishing guidelines for federal sentencing. The guidelineswere promulgated in 1987, but district and circuit court rulings prevented their full implementationuntil the Supreme Court, in Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361 (1989), affirmed theconstitutionality of the Commission and its work in crafting guidelines. This report focuses on three specific assessments:1) the guidelines’ impact on the transparency, certainty, and severity of punishment, 2) the impactof the guidelines on inter-judge and regional disparity, and 3) research on racial, ethnic, and genderdisparities in sentencing today.