Why isn’t there a prior good works guideline?

Another high-profile case highlights yet again the import and impact of prior good works at sentencing.  As this article details, in Connecticut yesterday, former Middletown mayor Stephen Gionfriddo received a below-guideline for stealing from clients because “Judge Christopher Droney credited Gionfriddo’s 24 years of public service in deviating from the guideline.”  Even higher-profile recent sentencings — those of lawyer Lynne Stewart and Enron’s Jeff Skilling — spotlight that, after Booker, some defendants are now getting huge breaks for prior good works, while others are getting no credit at all.

As I stressed when discussing my efforts for a defendant with nearly two decades of honorable military service, all structured sentencing systems have formal guidelines for enhancing sentences based on prior bad deeds through various (often intricate) criminal history enhancement.  The federal sentencing guidelines, for example, devote all of Chapter 4 to regulating criminal history enhancements, and this chapter of guidelines runs more than 25 pages with lots of intricate rules about how prior crimes ought to enhance a sentence.   

Doesn’t it make sense to envision and develop guidelines for crediting prior good deeds through various (perhaps intricate) “good-deeds history” guidelines?  To the extent some commentors rightly are concerned about disparity from encouraging judges to consider prior good deeds, the proper response is to develop guidelines, not to generally forbid consideration of this valid sentencing factor.  (Critically, both retributivist and utilitarian theories of punishment would support the relevance of sentence reductions for, say, prior honorable military service or an impressive record of charitable service.)

So why hasn’t the US Sentencing Commission ever developed guidelines for prior good deed reductions?  I am not calling for a whole chapter on the topic (like the prior bad deed guidelines that comprise Chapter 4).  But a few pages might be nice.  And, especially given what we are seeing after Booker, this sort of guideline seems essential to foster greater consistency in sentencings nationwide.