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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:58 am
Time: 12:58 am
Results for fair sentencing act
2 results foundAuthor: United States Sentencing Commission Title: Report to the Congress: Impact of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 Summary: The United States Sentencing Commission ("the Commission") submits this report to Congress in response to a congressional directive contained in section 10 of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-220, 124 Stat. 2372 ("FSA"), and pursuant to the Commission's general authority under 28 U.S.C. 994-995. For more than twenty years, the Commission has consistently worked with the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government and other interested parties to ensure that cocaine sentencing policy promotes the goals of the Sentencing Reform Act,1 including avoiding unwarranted sentence disparities among defendants with similar criminal records who have been found guilty of similar criminal conduct and promoting proportionate sentencing. Prior to the FSA, the Commission submitted four reports to Congress regarding cocaine sentencing, in 1995, 1997, 2002, and 2007, based on legislative history, scientific and medical literature, extensive analysis of the Commission's own data, public comment, and expert testimony.2 Since 1995, the Commission consistently took the position that the 100-to-1 drug quantity ratio of crack to powder cocaine significantly undermined the congressional objectives set forth in the Sentencing Reform Act. The Commission reached this conclusion based on its core findings regarding crack cocaine penalties as they existed before the FSA: - they overstated the relative harmfulness of crack cocaine compared to powder cocaine; - they swept too broadly and applied most often to lower level offenders; - they overstated the seriousness of most crack cocaine offenses and failed to provide adequate proportionality; and - their severity mostly impacted minorities.3 As a result of these findings, the Commission recommended that Congress reduce crack cocaine penalties so that the crack-to-powder drug quantity ratio was no more than 20-to-1, and that Congress repeal the mandatory minimum penalty for simple possession of crack cocaine.4 In 2007, the Commission reduced the crack cocaine guideline by two levels as an interim measure to alleviate some of the problems its reports identified.5 Consistent with the Commission's recommendations, the FSA reduced the statutory penalties for crack cocaine offenses to produce an 18-to-1 crack-to-powder drug quantity ratio and eliminated the mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine.6 The FSA also increased statutory fines and directed the Commission to amend the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines to account for specified aggravating and mitigating circumstances in drug trafficking offenses involving any drug type, not only crack cocaine.7 The FSA also directed the Commission to "study and submit to Congress a report regarding the impact of the changes in Federal sentencing law under this Act and the amendments made by this Act." 8 The report generally follows the structure of the FSA, first analyzing the FSA's changes to crack cocaine penalties, then turning to its changes to penalties for federal drug trafficking offenses more broadly. The Commission's study finds that the FSA reduced the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences, reduced the federal prison population, and appears to have resulted in fewer federal prosecutions for crack cocaine. All this occurred while crack cocaine use continued to decline. Details: Washington, DC: The Sentencing Commission, 2015. 91p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 13, 2016 at: http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/news/congressional-testimony-and-reports/drug-topics/201507_RtC_Fair-Sentencing-Act.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/news/congressional-testimony-and-reports/drug-topics/201507_RtC_Fair-Sentencing-Act.pdf Shelf Number: 140267 Keywords: Cocaine OffendersDrug OffendersDrug TraffickingFair Sentencing ActFederal OffendersRecidivismSentencing GuidelinesSentencing Policy |
Author: United States Sentencing Commission Title: Recidivism Among Federal Offenders Receiving Retroactive Sentence Reductions: The 2011 Fair Sentencing Act Guideline Amendment Summary: The Fair Sentencing Act of 20101 ("FSA") reduced the statutory penalties for crack cocaine offenses in two ways. First, it increased the drug quantity thresholds required to trigger the statutory mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment for manufacturing or trafficking crack cocaine. Second, it eliminated the statutory mandatory minimum penalty for possession of crack cocaine. In the FSA, Congress directed the United States Sentencing Commission (the "Commission") to amend the federal sentencing guidelines to incorporate the reduced statutory penalty structure for crack cocaine offenses effective November 1, 2010. Congress did not make the FSA statutory penalty reductions retroactive, but the Commission did give retroactive effect to the FSA guideline amendment (the "FSA Guideline Amendment") as of November 1, 2011.2 Following that action, 7,748 crack cocaine offenders have received an estimated average sentence reduction of 30 months, lowering their sentence from an average of 153 months to 123 months of imprisonment. In 2015, as required by the FSA, the Commission submitted a report to Congress assessing the impact of the FSA on the federal criminal justice system (the "2015 FSA Report"). The Commission noted in that report that its earlier research had found that a previous population of crack cocaine offenders released early as a result of retroactive application of a guideline amendment did not show a statistically significant increase in the likelihood of recidivating, but it was too soon to assess the recidivism of crack cocaine offenders released early through retroactive application of the FSA Guideline Amendment. In the 2015 FSA Report, the Commission further stated its intent to separately study the effect of retroactive application of the FSA Guideline Amendment on recidivism. This publication provides that analysis: Finding: The Commission finds no difference between the recidivism rates for offenders who were released early due to retroactive application of the FSA Guideline Amendment and offenders who had served their full sentences before the FSA Guideline Amendment reduction retroactively took effect. Details: Washington, DC: USSC, 2018. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 13, 2018 at: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2018/20180328_Recidivism_FSA-Retroactivity.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2018/20180328_Recidivism_FSA-Retroactivity.pdf Shelf Number: 152918 Keywords: Cocaine OffendersDrug OffendersDrug TraffickingFair Sentencing ActFederal OffendersRecidivismSentencing GuidelinesSentencing Policy |