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Will the US Sentencing Commission's forthcoming mandatory minimum report make any big news?

By Douglas A. Berman

In October 2009, Congress directed the US Sentencing Commission to undertake a comprehensive review of mandatory minimum sentencing penalties in one provision of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and report its findings and recommendations to Congress.  I believe that report is due to be released by the USSC this coming week, and I am eagerly waiting and hoping for the USSC to make some bold statements about the harms of the mandatory minimum sentencing provisions. Even if the USSC report is not bold in terms of recommendations, it should still include lots of interesting and fresh data about the application and operation of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions.  As explained by the USSC's current chair at a May 2010 USSC hearing about mandatory minimums (transcript here), this USSC report is required to cover a lot of ground: [F]irst, compilation of all mandatory minimum sentencing provisions under 17 federal law; Second, an assessment of the effect of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions under federal law, on the goal of eliminating unwarranted sentencing disparity and other goals of sentencing;  Third, an assessment of the impact of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions on the federal prison population; Next, an assessment of the compatibility of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions under federal law and the sentencing guidelines system which was established under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, approximately 25, slightly more than 25 years ago; and also compatibility with the sentencing guidelines system in place since Booker v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 31, 2010 (boomark / email).