The title of this post is the title of this book chapter authored by Thom Brooks now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract: This chapter is focused on the possible relevance of state misconduct for mitigating individual sentences.  I argued that state misconduct can justify mitigation where a sufficient connection is made between the state misconduct and the offender in one of two ways.  First, this may take the form of systematic discrimination whether or not intentional where offenders are subjected to overly harsh punishments as a result of bias against their protected charact ..read more

As stated in this press release from the White House, “President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is using his authority under the Constitution to advance equal justice under law by granting clemency to 16 deserving individuals who were convicted of non-violent drug offenses.” The release provide the names and various details about all the clemency recipients, though more background information is given concerning the 11 pardon recipients, and the basic sentence information is provided for the five persons who recieived prison sentence commutations. In this document, titled “Statement from President Joe B ..read more

The title of this post is the title of this new Criminology article authored by Abby Ballou.  Here is its abstract: It is widely held that providing postsecondary education programs to incarcerated individuals will improve postrelease labor market outcomes. Little research evidence exists, however, to support this view.  To test the effect of postsecondary carceral education credentials on employer perceptions of hireability, the current study uses a factorial design to survey a sample of employers nationwide (N = 2,538).  Employers were presented with résumés of fictional appl ..read more

I have listened to most of yesterday’s Supreme Court oral argument in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson.  I share the basic sentiments reflected in the headlines of these press accounts of the SCOTUS argument: From the New York Times, “Supreme Court Seems Poised to Uphold Local Bans on Homeless Encampments: A majority of the justices appeared skeptical of courts wading into the thorny policy questions around when local governments can punish people for sleeping and camping outdoors.” From NPR, “Supreme Court appears to side with an Oregon city’s crackdown on homelessness“ From Vox, “The ..read more

The title of this post is the title of this new book review authored by one of my Ohio State colleagues, Grace Li, now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract: Tommie Shelby’s 2022 book The Idea of Prison Abolition sets out to compile and rearticulate the arguments for and against prison abolition — using Angela Davis’s works as the sole source texts.  In considering the arguments, he concludes that it is not necessary to abolish prisons and instead endorses reform. In this book review, I argue that Shelby’s most helpful contribution in the book is not his analysis of whether prisons sh ..read more

The US Sentencing Commission yesterday released this new compassionate release data report, which includes data on “the compassionate release motions filed with the courts and decided during the first quarter of fiscal year 2024.”  (For the USSC, the first quarter of FY 2024 is actually the last three months of 2023.)   I noticed some interesting data points in this report comparing the sentence reduction grants and grant rates of the last three months of 2023 to prior months in 2023 and even earlier years. Specifically, the months of October and December 2023 saw the highest gr ..read more

As reported in this local piece from Tennessee, a “controversial bill that would allow the state to seek the death penalty for those convicted of rape of a child passed the House of Representatives Monday, clearing the final legislative hurdle before becoming law in Tennessee.”  Here are the basics: HB1663, by House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), would allow for those convicted of rape or especially aggravated rape of a child in Tennessee to be sentenced to death. The move received considerable pushback from Democrats, who argued the General Assembly was passing a blatant ..read more

As reported here, last week the the US Sentencing Commission voted unanimous to promulgate a number of notable new guideline amendments, including most notably an amendment to preclude the use of acquitted conduct in guideline calculations.  (The promulgated amendments passed by the Commission are posted here).  Perhaps because acquitted conduct sentencing reform is something I consider symbolically meaningful (and overdue), I view this unanimous guideline amendment to be a pretty big deal.  But, perhaps unsurprisingly, the USSC’s vote has garnered only modest press coverage to ..read more

The title of this post is the title of this new article now available via SSRN authored by Meredith Esser. Here is its abstract: Sentencing scholarship often begins by exploring the traditional purposes of punishment: deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation.  However, little scholarship exists addressing how these four punishment purposes apply in the post-sentencing or resentencing context.  Further, abstract theories of sentencing can often seem sterile and disconnected from the realities of how violent, disproportionate, and dehumanizing the actual experience ..read more

The title of this post is the title of this new article authored by Sam Merchant which now has an abstract available up on SSRN.  I typically will not link to an SSRN posting unless and until the full draft article is available for download.  But this article’s findings seem especially timely and notable; so here is its abstract: Many observers claim that judges are imposing disproportionately lenient sentences on January 6, 2021, “Capitol Breach” offenders.  Some have even suggested a racial or political motivation for lighter sentences.  Comparative data on these sentenc ..read more