In this post last month, I lamented the split Sixth Circuit panel opinion in US v. Jarvis, No. 20-3912 (6th Cir. June 3, 2021) (available here), which stated that “non-retroactive changes in the law [can] not serve as the ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ required for a sentence reduction.”  In that post, I noted that nothing in the text of § 3582(c)(1)(a) supports the contention that non-retroactive changes in the law cannot ever…

The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper authored by Lee Kovarsky now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract: In the final six months of Donald Trump’s presidency, the federal government executed thirteen people.  For perspective, there were three federal executions in the prior fifty-seven years — and none since 2003.  Among other things, this Article is a historical record of the “Trump Executions,” constructed largely from primary-source material.…

Via Twitter, I was altered to this notable new empirical paper by multiple authors titled “The Most Discriminatory Federal Judges Give Black and Hispanic Defendants At Least Double the Sentences of White Defendants.”  The paper’s title alone likely explains why I describe it as provocative, and this abstract provides more context about the paper’s contents: In the aggregate, racial inequality in criminal sentencing is an empirically well- established social problem. Yet, data limitations have made…

I blogged here earlier this week about the launch of the great new website Inquest, which describes itself as “a forum for advancing bold ideas to end mass incarceration in the United States.”  This week the site already has so much great and important new content, I am already falling behind in trying to keep up with this new forum.  Valuably, I have this blog space to note (and then later return to) all…

I have lamented in post after post that the Biden Administration has so far failed to seize the opportunity to advance federal sentencing reforms by making needed appointments to US Sentencing Commission, and I will continue to be troubled by (and complain about) its failings in this space for as long as it lasts.  In the meantime, I am pleased to see this new AP article highlighting another so-far-missed Biden Administration missed opportunity under the…

I noted here last summer that the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) had launched an important, timely and impressive new commission titled the “National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice” and headed by two former US Attorneys General.  That commission has produce a number of important works (examples here and here and here), and it helped produced a series of reports on recent crime trends under the heading “Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in…

The Bureau of Justice Statistics released this notable new report about the recidivism rates over five years for a set of state prisoners released in 2012. The full title of the 34-page report is “Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 34 States in 2012: A 5-Year Follow-Up Period (2012–2017).” Here is the introduction and “Highlights” from the first page of the report: Among state prisoners released in 2012 across 34 states, 62% were arrested within 3…