State Judges Urge Obama Support for Sentencing Reform

WASHINGTON — Two state Supreme Court justices urged President Obama to support comprehensive reform of sentencing laws that have made the United States the world leader in incarceration.

Judge Michael A. Wolff, Missouri Supreme Court, and Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz, Oregon Supreme Court, called for “major change in state and federal sentencing practices” to reduce the prison population rate and address the disproportionate incarceration of minorities, in a letter to the new administration.

The United States leads the world in inmates per capita, with a prison population rate of more than 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, according to a University of London survey of prison populations in 218 countries.

Sentencing guidelines, designed to reduce disparities, provide a measure of truth in sentencing and slow prison growth, have failed, according to Muniz and Wolff, who is chair of Missouri’s Sentencing Advisory Commission.

The United States, which accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s population, has a prison population of 2.3 million inmates — almost 25 percent of the world’s 9.8 million inmates, according to the World Prison Population List compiled by the university’s King’s College International Centre for Prison Studies.

Prison population rates in Europe are significantly lower than in the United States — the median rate is 95 persons per 100,000 residents — while the majority of countries throughout the world have rates of less than 150.

“We overuse and misuse prison; the cure is using prisons wisely for public safety,” according to the justices. The disparities that flow from “archaic dysfunction” of sentencing practices extend across several areas, including differences between powder crack cocaine sentences, according to Muniz and Wolff.

The justices also highlighted the racial composition of the U.S. prison population and the continued disproportionate representation of minorities.

Black males, who represent less than 10 percent of the total population, constitute more than 35 percent of all inmates held in prison or jail, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Approximately 4 percent of all black males in the United States were incarcerated, compared to 1.7 percent of Hispanic males and less than 1 percent of white males in the general population, according to the BJS.

The letter also criticizes the U.S. Sentencing Commission for maintaining sentencing guidelines that are “blind to risk and need assessment … ignore public safety as an objective” and “result in misallocation of prison resources.”

Following the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the commission incorporated a mix of sentence types, such as probation, into guidelines to provide courts with more flexibility and allow them to deal more appropriately with all offenders.

However, federal statutes and sentencing guidelines also limit offender eligibility for probation and other alternatives, such as community confinement or community-based sanctions. The number of federal offenders sentenced to prison increased from 75 percent to 85 percent during the last 10 years, according to a 2009 commission report.

Although 25 percent of offenders are eligible for alternative sentencing, federal courts impose prison sentences for the majority of offenders in each sentencing category. Only 7 percent of offenders received probation in 2007, according to the commission report.

White offenders accounted for 48 percent to 55 percent of the various alternative sanctions handed down in 2007, while blacks accounted for 24 percent to 28 percent of alternative sanctions, according to the commission report.

A commission symposium in mid-2008 examined the issue of alternatives to incarceration and the commission, which develops sentencing recommendations for submission to Congress, is considering expanding the implementation of alternatives to incarceration, experts say.

Guiding principles proposals for federal and state sentencing reform included:

Punishment should be no harsher than warranted and take account of legitimate sentencing objectives, according to the justices. Mandatory minimum sentences should be avoided and evidence-based sentencing should replace judicial discretion.

Sentencing guidelines should favor community-based sanctions, which are far more cost effective than incarceration and yield better outcomes in reducing recidivism for most low and moderate risk offenders, according to the justices. Sentencing sanctions and treatment programs should be evaluated on an ongoing basis in terms of outcomes and recidivism.

Rational sentencing must be based on considerations that enhance offender outcomes and public safety, and support public values. Ignoring the vast differences in offenders’ risks and needs dramatically impacts the effectiveness of the sentencing response and success of the outcome, according to the letter.

The justices also urged support for the National Institute of Corrections project to expand evidence-based sentencing practices into local court systems. The letter highlights the efforts of Missouri, Oregon, Virginia and Wisconsin in the area of data-driven sentencing, which incorporates risk and need assessment.

The number of incarcerations in Virginia declined by 25 percent with no increase in crime following a legislative directive to use risk assessment-based sentencing, according to the letter. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, says he plans to introduce legislation in Congress to create a national commission to study the criminal justice system, sentencing policy and practices, and prison population rate.

During 2008, 17 states, including Arizona, Kentucky, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, enacted criminal justice reforms in areas such as sentencing, drug policy and parole revocation, according to a 2009 report by the Sentencing Project which advocates for justice reform.