Chapter 14
Covering Sentencing: Story Ideas
By Ted Gest

1. A feature story on how sentences are arrived at, starting with the offense, decisions by police and prosecutors on what to charge, and how a judge arrives at a sentence, including the role of victims, if any.
2. Does your state have sentencing guidelines? If so, what evaluations have been done on their impact, what is judges’ record of compliance with them?
3. Whether or not your area has guidelines, what statistics are available on average sentence imposed and actual time served? You and your audience may be surprised how high or low these figures are with respect to particular crime categories. You may also discover that the data are not even available, raising questions about whether any one knows, other than by anecdote, how the sentencing system is working.
4. Presentence reports. Who does them, what do they involve, do they influence the actual sentence?
5. Role of defense attorneys. If it’s not covered in a general feature story, are defense attorneys in your area very active in proposing sentences, including specific rehab opportunities for defendants? Are they very successful in influencing the sentence?
6. Community courts. Whether or not you have such entities in your area, are judges at all creative regarding restitution, community service, other forms of sentences rather than straight jail/prison time? Has anyone evaluated such sentencing?
7. How does your area stack up with regard to “truth in sentencing?” Whether or not sentences typically are given in ranges (e.g., 15 to 25 years), how does the stated sentence typically relate to actual time served?
8. Are executive or legislative branch officials reconsidering sentence lengths because of government budget shortages for corrections? Are these permanent or stopgap measures?