Fair Sentencing Policy Summary

The United States Congress has granted the Sentencing Commission to conduct research and collect data collection. There instructions were to “develop means of measuring the degree to which the sentencing, penal, and correctional practices are effective in meeting the purposes of sentencing” (Barkow, 2013). Guidelines are limited because the only govern judges and parole officials but lack the appropriate regulations to govern prosecutorial discretion. Congress have been known to ignore findings provided by the Commission. Their recommendations fell on death’s ears when it came to the Commission proposing to eliminated the disparity between sentences for usage powdered and crack cocaine in in the mid 90’s. Congress and the Executive branch initially ignored the Commission over time which overall influenced any debate that was created over the sentencing process. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, is an example of Congress finally adhering to the Commission’s requested and revised its approach to the disparate treatment of cocaine. …show more content…
In the article, by Engen (2003), authors argue that structural features of guidelines not only serve as "windows of discretion" through which disparities may arise, but they may encourage disparities by requiring consideration of substantive criteria that disadvantage certain offender groups. It is important to understand that sentencing disparities are active under the current guidelines. Mainly because discretionary rulings are used in ways that disadvantage minority groups (Albonetti, 1997, 1998; Kramer and Steffens Meier, 1993; Kramer and Ulmer, 1996; Steffens Meier et al., 1993; Steffens Meier and Demuth, 2000; Ulmer,