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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 11:12 pm
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Results for federal offenders
5 results foundAuthor: Hunt, Kim Steven Title: Recidivism Among Federal Offenders: A Comprehensive Overview Summary: This report provides a broad overview of key findings from the United States Sentencing Commission's study of recidivism of federal offenders. The Commission studied offenders who were either released from federal prison after serving a sentence of imprisonment or placed on a term of probation in 2005. Nearly half (49.3%) of such offenders were rearrested within eight years for either a new crime or for some other violation of the condition of their probation or release conditions. This report discusses the Commission's recidivism research project and provides many additional findings from that project. In the future, the Commission will release additional publications discussing specific topics concerning recidivism of federal offenders. (March 2016) The offenders studied in this project are 25,431 federal offenders who: are citizens; re-entered the community during 2005 after discharging their sentence of incarceration or by commencing a term of probation in 2005; have valid FBI numbers which could be located in criminal history repositories (in at least one state, the District of Columbia, or federal records); are not reported dead, escaped, or detained, and have a pre-sentence investigation report that was submitted to the Commission with a federal sentence that was not vacated. The key findings of the Commission's study are: - Over an eight year follow-up period, almost one-half of federal offenders released in 2005 (49.3%) were rearrested for a new crime or rearrested for a violation of supervision conditions. - Almost one-third (31.7%) of the offenders were also reconvicted, and one-quarter (24.6%) of the offenders were reincarcerated over the same study period. - Offenders released from incarceration in 2005 had a rearrest rate of 52.5 percent, while offenders released directly to a probationary sentence had a rearrest rate of 35.1 percent. - Of those offenders who recidivated, most did so within the first two years of the eight year follow-up period. The median time to rearrest was 21 months. - About one-fourth of those rearrested had an assault rearrest as their most serious charge over the study period. Other common most serious offenses were drug trafficking, larceny, and public order offenses. - A federal offender's criminal history was closely correlated with recidivism rates. Rearrest rates range from 30.2 percent for offenders with zero total criminal history points to 80.1 percent of offenders in the highest Criminal History Category, VI. Each additional criminal history point was generally associated with a greater likelihood of recidivism. - A federal offender's age at time of release into the community was also closely associated with differences in recidivism rates. Offenders released prior to age 21 had the highest rearrest rate, 67.6 percent, while offenders over sixty years old at the time of release had a recidivism rate of 16.0 percent - Other factors, including offense type and educational level, were associated with differing rates of recidivism but less so than age and criminal history. Details: Washington, DC: United States Sentencing Commission, 2016. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 10, 2016 at: http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2016/recidivism_overview.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2016/recidivism_overview.pdf Shelf Number: 138162 Keywords: Federal OffendersOffendersRe-offendingRecidivismRepeat Offenders |
Author: 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 Drug Trafficking Offenders Summary: The Commission's Ongoing Recidivism Research The United States Sentencing Commission began studying recidivism shortly after the enactment of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 ("SRA"). The Commission’s recent publication Recidivism Among Federal Offenders: A Comprehensive Overview ("Recidivism Overview Report") discussed the history of this study in greater detail. Recidivism information is central to three of the primary purposes of punishment described in the SRA—specific deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation—all of which focus on prevention of future crimes through correctional intervention. Information about recidivism is also relevant to the Commission’s obligation to formulate sentencing policy that "reflect[s], to the extent practicable, advancements in knowledge of human behavior as it relates to the sentencing process." Considerations of recidivism by federal offenders were also central to the Commission’s initial work in developing the Guidelines Manual's criminal history provisions.4 They remain important to subsequent work, including the retroactive application of sentencing reductions in cases involving crack cocaine, and continue to be a key consideration in the Commission’s work today. Recent developments, particularly public attention to the size of the federal prison population and the costs of incarceration, have highlighted the importance of studying recidivism among federal offenders. The Commission's current recidivism research substantially expands on the scope of previous Commission recidivism projects. In addition to a different set of offenders— U.S. citizen federal offenders released in 2005—the project's study group is much larger than those in previous Commission studies. A larger study group provides the opportunity to develop statistically useful conclusions about many subgroups of federal offenders. This Report: Recidivism Among Federal Drug Trafficking Offenders This report examines a group of 10,888 federal drug trafficking offenders who were released in calendar year 2005. They were originally sentenced between fiscal year 1991 and the first quarter of fiscal year 2006. Offenders were placed in this group based on the primary sentencing guideline that the court applied when sentencing the offender. One-half (50.0%) of these drug trafficking offenders were rearrested for a new crime or for an alleged violation of their supervision over the follow-up period of eight years. This compares to a 49.3 percent rearrest rate for all offenders reported in the Recidivism Overview Report. These 10,888 offenders, who were all U.S. citizens, represent 42.8 percent of the 25,431 federal offenders who were released in calendar year 200510 and analyzed in the Recidivism Overview Report. Among those offenders in this group for whom drug type information was available,11 crack cocaine was the most common primary drug type, with 2,953 crack cocaine offenders (27.3% of the 10,814 offenders with a known primary drug type). The remaining primary drug types, in order of prevalence, were marijuana (n=2,570, 23.8%), powder cocaine (n=2,350, 21.7%), methamphetamine (n=1,826, 16.9%), and heroin (n=590, 5.5%). An additional 525 (4.9%) offenders had some other type of drug as the primary type of drug in their offense, and were not studied separately for purposes of this report. Details: Washington, DC: USSC, 2017. 149p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2017 at: http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20170221_Recidivism-Drugs.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20170221_Recidivism-Drugs.pdf Shelf Number: 141174 Keywords: Drug OffendersDrug TraffickersDrug TraffickingFederal OffendersRecidivism |
Author: United States Sentencing Commission Title: The Effects of Aging on Recidivism Among Federal Offenders Summary: The United States Sentencing Commission1 began studying recidivism shortly after the enactment of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 ("SRA"), and has issued several recent publications examining recidivism rates among federal offenders released in 2005. The Commission's first report in this series, Recidivism Among Federal Offenders: A Comprehensive Overview ("Recidivism Overview Report"), was released in March 2016 and discussed this research project in greater detail. As noted in the previous reports in this series, recidivism information is central to three of the primary purposes of punishment described in the SRA-specific deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation-all of which focus on prevention of future crimes through correctional intervention. Information about recidivism is also relevant to the Commission's obligation to formulate sentencing policy that "reflect[s], to the extent practicable, advancements in knowledge of human behavior as it relates to the sentencing process." Considerations of recidivism by federal offenders were also central to the Commission's initial work in developing the Guidelines Manual's criminal history provisions as well as its ongoing work. The Commission's current recidivism research substantially expands on the scope of previous Commission recidivism projects. In addition to a different set of offenders-U.S. citizen federal offenders released in 2005-the current study group (25,431 offenders) is much larger than those in previous Commission studies. A larger study group allows for data analysis across many different subgroups of federal offenders, including those sentenced under different provisions in the guidelines. This report is the fourth in this series and focuses on the relationship between age at release and recidivism. This report examines the impact of the aging process on federal offender recidivism and, once age is accounted for, the impact of other offense and offender characteristics. Details: Washington, DC: USSC, 2017. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 14, 2018 at: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20171207_Recidivism-Age.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20171207_Recidivism-Age.pdf Shelf Number: 150530 Keywords: Age and Crime Aging Federal OffendersRecidivism |
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 |