US Sentencing Commission reports receiving “more than 8,000 public comment submissions pertaining to proposed priorities”
This past Friday, the US Sentencing Commission reported on the public comments it received in response to the USSC’s tentative policy priorities for the 2022-2023 guideline amendment year (which were announced late last month). Here is how the USSC describes on its website homepage what was set its way: “The Commission received more than 8,000 public comment submissions pertaining to proposed priorities for the 2022-2023 amendment year.”
I would guess that eight thousand(!) comments amounts to some kind of record for the USSC. This large number of comments surely reflects a kind of “pent up demand” given the need for guideline reforms to fully implement the First Step Act and other issues that have festered over the last four years while the Commission has lacked a quorum. But I also suspect it reflects that many advocates may realize, circa Fall 2022, that the new USSC may be more willing and more able to advance certain federal criminal justice reforms than any other federal actors right now.
The USSC has provided a “sample of these letters” reflecting public comment at this link. It is notable and interesting to see comments there from a Senator, from multiple federal judges, from prosecutors and defense attorneys, from probation officers, and from all sorts of interest groups and interested individuals. Kudos to everyone involved in sharing a wide array of views to help the USSC’s with its important work. And, this Friday brings the first public US Sentencing Commission hearing in nearly four years, on October 28, to finalize the USSC’s priorities for the coming amendment year.
A few prior related posts: