The Federal Sentencing Regime

Feb 5, 2013 by admin

WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT AMERICA? The United States has the highest prison population in the world. In 2007, the population was nearly 2.3 million people, nearly one quarter of the world prison population. Russia and China combine for the next quarter. Western European countries have prison populations which are roughly 10% of the rate in the United States. China, the country often believed to have the harshest criminal justice system, has a prison population rate one fifth that of the United States.1 One of the reasons for this high prison population is that Congress has passed numerous criminal statutes requiring judges to impose mandatory sentences. These statutes strip judges of any discretion in imposing sentences that meet the crime. The best known are mandatory minimum drug sentences; in cases where defendants do not...