Letter to the USSC about modern sentencing data
I had the honor of signing my name to a terrific letter put together last week by a group of sentencing gurus that urged the US Sentencing Commission to go further in making its sentencing data more transparent and accessible. This letter can be downloaded below, and here is how it begins:
The undersigned scholars and researchers study the federal sentencing system from a variety of policy and philosophical perspectives. As you well know, these are interesting times. Constitutional decisions by the Supreme Court revised the guideline system put in place by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (the SRA). Legislation, both enacted and proposed, has raised important questions concerning the fairness and effectiveness of federal sentencing. The quality of our national policy debate can be improved by empirical research, just as our sentencing practices can be improved by empirical evaluation.
We call on you to fully use the powers granted by the SRA to facilitate research and evaluation. The upcoming Data and Research Conference on May 5-7 provides an opportunity for the Commission to expand its role as “clearinghouse and information center” on federal sentencing practices and to assist researchers working with the annual monitoring data file. The conference agenda published on your website does not seem to address several concerns regarding the timing and method of release of Commission data, however, and the release of data beyond the annual monitoring, appeals, and organizations data files. We ask that you consider these additional issues and recommendations.