Fifty Years of American Sentencing Reform — Nine Lessons

Crime and Justice—A Review of Research, Forthcoming

46 Pages Posted: 20 Dec 2018

See all articles by Michael Tonry

Michael Tonry

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law

Date Written: December 7, 2018

Abstract

Efforts to standardize sentences and eliminate disparities in a state or the federal system cannot succeed; distinctive practices and norms, diverse local cultures, and practical and political needs of officials and agencies assure major local differences in sentencing practice. Presumptive sentencing guidelines developed by sentencing commissions, however, are the most effective means to improve consistency, reduce disparity, and control corrections spending. Federal sentencing guidelines have been remarkably unsuccessful; they should be rebuilt from the ground up. Mandatory sentencing laws should be repealed, and no new ones enacted; they produce countless injustices, encourage cynical circumventions, and seldom achieve demonstrable reductions in crime. Black and Hispanic defendants are more likely than whites and Asians to be sentenced to imprisonment, and for longer; presumptive sentencing guidelines reduced racial disparities initially and over time, but most states do not have presumptive guidelines. Use of predictions of dangerousness to determine who is imprisoned and for how long is unjust; predictive accuracy has improved little in 50 years and current methods too often lengthen prison terms of people who would not have committed violent crimes. Except in the handful of states that have effective systems of presumptive sentencing guidelines, parole release is an essential component of a just and cost-effective sentencing system in the United States.

Keywords: sentencing reform, sentencing guidelines, federal guidelines, mandatory minimums, parole release, racial disparities

Suggested Citation

Tonry, Michael, Fifty Years of American Sentencing Reform — Nine Lessons (December 7, 2018). Crime and Justice—A Review of Research, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3297777

Michael Tonry (Contact Author)

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law

Guenterstalstr. 73
Freiburg, 79100
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
333
Abstract Views
1,770
Rank
165,542
PlumX Metrics