US Sentencing Commission’s recent guideline amendments

In some posts linked below, I bemoaned in various ways that the US Sentencing Commission has largely ignored Booker (not to mention Blakely) its guideline amendment process.  Rather than repeat those points, I will react to this recent USSC press release about the latest guideline amendments by noting the one-way upward ratchet we regularly see in the guideline amendment process.  By my rough count, all seven formal changes to the guidelines involve the addition of upward sentencing enhancements.

That said, there are two amendments that indirectly soften some rough edges of the guidelines.  This amendment cycle includes a revised policy statement regarding Bureau of Prisons’ motions for sentence reductions and revised commentary concerning what an organization must do to receive credit for cooperation at sentencing.  This latter development is discussed at length in this recent National Law Journal article.

Some related posts on USSC amendment process:

• A loud deafening silence from the Sentencing Commission
• What is the Sentencing Commission fiddling while the crack guidelines burn?
• Friday afternoon ranting about the post-Booker world