Sentencing Law and Policy

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Latest from Sentencing Law and Policy

"Applying Procedural Justice in Community Supervision"

April 17, 2021

The title of this post is the title of this interesting report released last month by folks at the Urban Institute. This page has this abstract for the report: Procedural justice, a framework for authority figures to treat people with fairness and respect, can improve probation supervision and core supervision outcomes. This report summarizes the approach and provision outcomes of an effort to develop and pilot a new procedural justice training curriculum outlining new tools…

Sentencing Law and Policy

"Virginia should roll back the punitive influence of prosecutors and victims on parole decisions"

By Douglas Berman

April 16, 2021

The title of this post is the headline of this new Washington Post op-ed by Nora Demleitner. Here are excerpts: The Virginia Parole Board scandal gets worse by the day. The board stands accused of disregarding state law and its own procedures to facilitate the parole release of a few incarcerated men. A watchdog report alleges that the board failed to consider the required input from victim families and did not inform them and prosecutors…

Sentencing Law and Policy

First public plea deal struck by Capitol rioter, who agrees to cooperate and to reported guideline range of 41 to 51 months in prison

By Douglas Berman

April 16, 2021

As reported in this Fox News piece, headlined “Capitol rioter takes first public plea deal, agrees to cooperate with authorities: sources,” the first big plea in the Capitol riot cases has been announce by the Justice Department. Here are the basics with a few points highlighted: An alleged member of the Oath Keepers militia group who was “among the first five or six” rioters to enter the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 is…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Lots and lots more good reads from <em>The Appeal</em>

By Douglas Berman

April 16, 2021

I said here earlier this month that “just about every week, The Appeal has too much great new criminal justice content for me to keep up with.” This week serves as another example, so I will again try to make up for limited time with this round-up of links to highlight some of notable recent Apppeal-ing content: By Maura Ewing, “Philadelphia D.A. Race Could Ramp Up The War On Drugs. Larry Krasner has…

Sentencing Law and Policy

One year (and 185 pages) later, divided Eleventh Circuit (now <em>en banc</em>) again rules Jeffrey Epstein's victims had no pre-charge rights under federal CVRA

By Douglas Berman

April 16, 2021

Almost exactly one year ago, as blogged here, a divided Eleventh Circuit panel handed down a very long opinion on an very interesting issue concerning the rights of victims of a very high profile (and now very dead) federal defendant. The opinions in the original panel decisions In re Courtney Wild, No. 19-13843 (11th Cir. April 14, 2020) (available here), ran a total of 120 pages. Yesterday, exactly a year and a…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Can capital punishment be another part of a bipartisan criminal justice reform story?

By Douglas Berman

April 15, 2021

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this lengthy new Marshall Project piece fully titled “Can The Death Penalty Be Fixed? These Republicans Think So: A growing number of conservative lawmakers want to overhaul capital punishment, or end it.” Here are excerpts: As Oklahoma officials seek to resume putting prisoners to death later this year, [state Rep. Kevin] McDugle has pursued bills in the state legislature to help those on death…

Sentencing Law and Policy

"Long Road to Nowhere: How Southern States Struggle with Long-Term Incarceration"

By Douglas Berman

April 15, 2021

The title of this post is the title of this recent report from Southern Poverty Law Center. I just noticed the report because it was recently made available here via SSRN, where one finds this abstract: The Deep South is the epicenter of mass incarceration. The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other country, with prison populations growing by 86% between 1990 and 2019. For Southern states, prison populations exploded by 127%…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Heard at BOP oversight hearing: "Simply put, our prison system at the federal level is failing."

By Douglas Berman

April 15, 2021

The quote in this title of this post is sentence from the opening statement by Senator Dick Durbin during this morning’s hearing titled “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Prisons” before the US Senate Judiciary Committee. The only witness for this hearing is Michael Carvajal, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and I had hoped by now that there might be publicly available some written testimony from him (as well as official statements…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Noting the importance of charging policies and practices (and consistency?) as federal rioting charges get resolved from coast-to-coast

By Douglas Berman

April 14, 2021

A few weeks ago, as blogged here, Politico spotlighted some case processing realities surrounding the on-going federal prosecutions of persons involved in the insurrection on January 6, 2021. That lengthy piece highlighted reasons why it could turn out, in the words of the headline, that “Many Capitol rioters [are] unlikely to serve jail time.” Politico now has this additional interesting piece on the same beat headlined “Leniency for defendants in Portland clashes could affect…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Infamous Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff dies in prison after spending his final dozen years behind bars

By Douglas Berman

April 14, 2021

As reported in this Fox Business piece, headlined “Bernie Madoff, mastermind of vast Ponzi scheme, dies in federal prison at age 82,” an infamous white-collar offender passed away behind bars today. Here are the basics: Bernie Madoff, the notorious architect of the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history, has died at age 82. Madoff was serving a 150-year sentence at the federal medical care center in Butner, North Carolina, where his attorney said he…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Blog Authors

"Applying Procedural Justice in Community Supervision"

"Virginia should roll back the punitive influence of prosecutors and victims on parole decisions"

First public plea deal struck by Capitol rioter, who agrees to cooperate and to reported guideline range of 41 to 51 months in prison

Lots and lots more good reads from <em>The Appeal</em>

One year (and 185 pages) later, divided Eleventh Circuit (now <em>en banc</em>) again rules Jeffrey Epstein's victims had no pre-charge rights under federal CVRA

Can capital punishment be another part of a bipartisan criminal justice reform story?

"Long Road to Nowhere: How Southern States Struggle with Long-Term Incarceration"

Heard at BOP oversight hearing: "Simply put, our prison system at the federal level is failing."

Noting the importance of charging policies and practices (and consistency?) as federal rioting charges get resolved from coast-to-coast

Infamous Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff dies in prison after spending his final dozen years behind bars

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