| Chapter
14
Resource Guide to Covering Sentencing
By Ted Gest
Organizations and Government Agencies
(in alphabetical order)
Council of State Governments Justice Center
New York City
Martha Plotkin—media contact (240) 482-8579
http://justicecenter.csg.org
The center promotes effective data-driven practices—particularly in areas in which the criminal justice system intersects with other disciplines, such as public health—to affect a particular public safety problem. The center has focused on prisoner re-entry and “justice reinvestment”—“increasing public safety, reducing spending on corrections, and improving conditions in the neighborhoods to which most people released from prison return,” among many other issues.
Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Washington, D.C.
(202) 822-6700
http://www.famm.org
media@famm.org
The organization was founded in 1991 by Julie Stewart, whose brother, a first-time drug offender, received a mandatory minimum prison term of five years for growing marijuana. Stewart started the group to campaign against such laws on the federal and state level.
National Association of Sentencing Commissions
John P. O’Connell, president
(302) 739-4626
John.o’connell@state.de.us
http://www.ussc.gov/STATES.HTM
The association was formed to exchange information among the state sentencing agencies. It does not have a full-time staff.
National Center on Institutions and Alternatives
Baltimore
Herbert Hoelter, president, (410) 265-1490
http://www.ncianet.org
The center, founded by advocates of alternatives to incarceration, helps arrange treatment for emotionally disturbed youth, developmentally disabled adults and adolescents, and others involved in the criminal justice system.
Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project
Washington, D.C.
Adam Gelb, director. (202) 552-2000
agelb@pewtrusts.org
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives_detail.aspx?initiativeID=31336
Launched in 2006, the project helps states advance fiscally sound, data-driven sentencing and corrections policies that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and control costs. The project is collaborating with several external partners to provide expert, nonpartisan information and assistance to states that want a better return on their public safety investments.
Sentencing Commission (U.S.)
Washington, D.C.
202 502-4500
http://www.ussc.gov
Michael Courlander—media contact
202-502-4597
202-502-4500
pubaffairs@ussc.gov
The commission is a judicial branch entity whose seven members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. It was created in a 1984 federal anticrime law to recommend sentencing guidelines for federal judges. The guidelines became effective in 1987, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that judges are not bound to follow them. The commission still makes recommendations and sponsors studies on sentencing issues.
Sentencing Commissions (States)
http://www.ussc.gov/states/nascaddr.htm
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have created their own sentencing commissions to consider sentencing policies. Links to those commissions can be found at this site.
The Sentencing Project
Washington, D.C.
Zerline Jennings—media contact
202-628-0871
http://sentencingproject.org
The organization promotes reforms in sentencing law and practice, and alternatives to incarceration. It was founded in 1986 to provide sentencing advocacy training to defense lawyers. It now campaigns on a number of issues, including racial disparity in the justice system, disenfranchisement of felons, and convicts’ loss of welfare, education, and housing benefits after minor drug convictions.
Vera Institute of Justice
New York City
212-334-1300
Robin Campbell—media contact
http://www.vera.org/csc/csc.html
Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections (CSC) provides nonpartisan support to government officials and criminal justice professionals on sentencing and corrections policy. Using empirical data and evidence-based practices, the institute identifies emerging trends and issues and helps develop cost-effective strategies for protecting public safety.
People
Austin, James
Malibu, Ca./Washington, D.C.
www.jfa-associates.com
(310) 867-0569
asstin@aol.com
Austin has served as director of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance-funded corrections options technical assistance program, which provides help to local jails, probation, parole, and prison systems. He also directed BJA projects that focused on juveniles in adult corrections facilities and a national assessment of adult and juvenile private corrections facilities. He is a consultant to parole boards in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Maryland on risk assessment systems for prisoners eligible for release.
Berman, Douglas
Ohio State University
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/faculty/bios.php?ID=5
(614) 688-8690
berman.43@osu.edu
Berman specializes in criminal law and criminal sentencing. He is co-author of a casebook on the subject (“Sentencing Law and Policy: Cases, Statutes and Guidelines; Aspen Publishers) and has served as an editor of the Federal Sentencing Reporter for more than a decade. Berman is the creator of the widely-read Weblog “Sentencing Law and Policy” (http://sentencing.typepad.com) and is widely quoted in the media. His blog posts have been cited in many court rulings and briefs.
Bowman III, Frank O.
University of Missouri
http://www.law.missouri.edu/faculty/directory/bowmanf.html
(573) 882-2749
bowmanf@missouri.edu
Bowman is a former prosecutor, both for the U.S. Justice Department criminal division and the Denver District Attorneys’ office. He formerly served as a special counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and is an expert on sentencing guidelines.
Dickey, Walter
University of Wisconsin Law School
http://law.wisc.edu/profiles/index.php?iEmployeeID=123
(608) 262-1542
wjdickey@wisc.edu
Dickey heads the law school’s Remington Center for Research, Education and Service in Criminal Justice. He is former director of the state corrections division and chaired the Governor's Task Force on Sentencing and Corrections, which reported in 1996. He was a participant in Executive Sessions on Sentencing and Corrections, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Levin, Marc
Austin, Tx.
http://www.texaspolicy.com/staff_member.php?staff_id=32
(512) 472-2700
(e-mail him via his Web site)
Levin is a director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He focuses on sentencing and corrections issues from a free-market perspective. He has served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Love, Margaret Colgate
Washington, D.C.
http://www.pardonlaw.com
(202) 547-0453
Margaretlove@pardonlaw.com
Love specializes in executive clemency and restoration of convict rights, as well as sentencing and corrections policy. She served in the U.S. Justice Department as Pardon Attorney between 1990 and 1997, and directs the American Bar Association’s Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions.
Reitz, Kevin
University of Minnesota
http://www.law.umn.edu/facultyprofiles/reitzk.html
(612) 626-3078
reitz027@umn.edu
Reitz specializes in sentencing law and policy. In 1993, he organized the first meeting of the National Association of Sentencing Commissions. He continues to work with various state sentencing commissions. He formerly served as co-reporter of the American Bar Association’s criminal justice standards for sentencing.
Robinson, Paul
University of Pennsylvania Law School
http://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/faculty/phrobins/
(215) 898-1017
phr@law.upenn.edu
Robinson was a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission in the 1980s and has written extensively on sentencing and issues of punishment theory.
Saltzburg, Stephen
George Washington University Law School
http://www.law.gwu.edu/Faculty/Profile.aspx?id=1761
(202) 994-7089
ssaltz@law.gwu.edu
Saltzburg was a deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and served as the Attorney General’s ex-officio representative on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. He chaired the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section in 2007-08. He co-chairs the ABA’s Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions.
Smith, Michael
University of Wisconsin Law School
http://www.law.wisc.edu/profiles/index.php?iEmployeeID=210\
(608) 263-7762
Mesmith4@wisc.edu
Smith joined the law school in 1995 after 16 years heading the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City. He serves on the editorial advisory board of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, which was started by Vera after the federal sentencing guidelines became effective in the 1980s. He served on many criminal justice boards in New York city and state, including the New York State Sentencing Guidelines Committee, and on the U.S. Sentencing Commission Advisory Committee on Alternataives to Imprisonment.
Stith, Kate
Yale Law School
http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/KStith.htm
(203) 492-2992
e-mail via her Yale Web site
Stith is a former federal prosecutor in New York City, where she handled white-collar and organized-crime cases. She has served as an adviser for the American Law Institute project Model Penal Code Sentencing. She wrote a book, “Fear of Judging: Sentencing Guidelines in the Federal Courts” (U. of Chicago Press 1998) with her husband, Judge José A. Cabranes, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Tonry, Michael
University of Minnesota
http://www.law.umn.edu/facultyprofiles/tonrym.html
(612) 625-1314
Tonry001@umn.edu
Tonry is a close observer of sentencing policies both in the United States and abroad. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and a senior fellow of The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. He edits “Crime and Justice’’—an annual review of justice research.
Zimring, Frank
University of California Berkeley
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/faculty/facultyProfile.php?facID=127
(510) 624-0854
fzimring@law.berkeley.edu
Zimring is director of his law school’s Earl Warren Legal Institute. He is an expert on criminal sanctions and the death penalty, among many subjects. He has been an expert panel member for the U.S. Education Department’s Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools program and an advisory member of the National Research Council’s panel on juvenile crime. Zimring is the author or co-author of books relating to capital punishment and the scale of imprisonment.
Articles, Books, Reports, Research
Felony Sentences in State Courts 2004
U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2007
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/fssc04.htm
Frankel, Marvin
Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order (Hill and Wang, 1973)
Friedman, Lawrence M.
Crime and Punishment in American History (Basic Books, 1993)
National Assessment of Structured Sentencing
U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1996.
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/strsent.pdf
State Court Sentencing of Convicted Felons 2004
U.S. Bureau of Statistics, 2007
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/scscf04st.htm
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