An awesome reading list on “Second Look Sentencing”

Greg Newburn has created this terrific new posting under the title “Second Look Sentencing: A (Running) Reading List for Legislators, Staff, Advocates, and Everyone Else.” I highly recommend all the items linked in this great reading list, and here is the post’s preface to the list:

The idea of “Second Look” sentencing — that the law should allow some mechanism by which institutional actors can legally revisit sentences to ensure they remain appropriate (or to adjust those that never were) — has been around for some time.  Now, it is gaining traction. For example, the Model Penal Code now contains a second look provisionFlorida Legislature, and passed several committees (the bill was recently re-filed for the 2021 sessionpoised to pass in Washington, D.C. any day now; the new District Attorney for Los Angeles County, George Gascón, announced his office will create a “resentencing unit” tasked with conducting second look-style reviews in thousands of cases“equitable review” process that led to the early release of drug offenders serving sentences no longer found in lawmodel second look legislation, a fantastic aid for legislators interested in adopting second look laws in their states.

Given the momentum second-look sentencing seems to have at the moment — and the fact that adopting such laws is a moral necessity given the way current sentencing structures deny thousands of our fellow human beings their liberty unnecessarily — I thought it might be useful to put together a list of materials — law review articles, opinion pieces, blog posts, panels, etc. — that legislators, staff, advocates, and laypeople could use for a better understanding of some of the theoretical and moral issues surrounding second look sentencing, how it would work in practice, why it would protect and even improve public safety outcomes, and so on.