What about compassionate conservatism in the federal CJ system?

I have already set out this lengthy list of questions concerning AG Alberto Gonzales’  speech advocating a Booker fix in the form of “the construction of a minimum guideline system” (basics here and background here).  But I have to add one more: isn’t there a place for compassionate conservatism in the federal criminal justice system?

Recall that, as detailed here, at Gonzales’ confirmation hearing, Republican Senators Sam Brownback and Tom Coburn and Arlen Specter all talked about being smart on crime as well as tough on crime.   Gonzales responded that “people who commit violent crimes and are career criminals … should remain in our prisons,” but he also said that “there is a segment of the prison population … first-time, maybe sometimes second-time offenders who can be rehabilitated.”  Gonzales further explained, “I think it is not only smart, but I think it’s the right thing to do.  I think it is part of a compassionate society to give someone another chance.”

With those prior comments in mind, I found particularly jarring in Gonzales’ speech yesterday that he assailed the sentencing in a tax evasion case from New York in which the sentencing judge apparently concluded “that the defendant’s age and the need to take care of his wife … now justified a lesser sentence.”  But I suppose I should not be surprised by Gonzales’ lack of compassion in that case after federal prosecutors in his Justice Department sought a 215-year sentence (!) for John Rigas, the founder of Adelphia Communications, who is 80-year-old and apparently quite sick.

Of course, there are lots and lots of federal defendants who deserve no compassion whatsoever at sentencing.  But what is troubling about Gonzales’ proposed Booker fix is that he does not trust federal judges (most of whom, by the way, are Republican appointments) to make reasonable judgments about which defendants may deserve a bit of compassion.  Gonzales’ proposed “minimum guideline system” apparently would preclude federal judges from ever showing a hint of compassion (even to non-violent, first-offenders) to go below the guidelines, though judges would presumably retain full authority to show the opposite of compassion and impose sentences above the guidelines.