The Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections issued its final report on January 26, 2016, crediting ALI with one of its key recommendations. The Task Force, established by Congressional mandate in 2014 to make recommendations for a more just and efficient federal corrections system, operated from the premise that long prison sentences should be reserved for the most serious offenders.
Among other things, the Task Force recommended that Congress authorize a “second look” sentence reduction opportunity for long-sentenced prisoners. The Task Force report specifically credited ALI with proposing this idea in § 305.6 of the Model Penal Code: Sentencing. It also recommended that Congress authorize a new “earned time” credit of up to 20% off time served for participation in rehabilitative programming, similar to the recommendation in the MPC’s § 305.1.
The “second look” provision in § 305.6, approved by the Annual Meeting in 2011, would authorize a de novo judicial resentencing, in light of current circumstances, of any prisoner who had served 15 years. This idea, which originated with the project’s Reporters and Advisers in 2007, addresses the problems posed by exceptionally long prison terms that make no allowance for changes in the crime policy environment. As the commentary to § 305.6 points out, a second look mechanism is meant to ensure that punishments that will reach a generation into the future “remain intelligible and justifiable at a point in time far distant from their original imposition.”
One of the principal authors of the Colson Task Force report, Ryan King of the Urban Institute, attended ALI’s Annual Meeting as its guest the year the MPC’s three sentence reduction mechanisms were debated.
Another ALI sentencing proposal, § 305.7, would permit judicial modification of prison sentences in “compelling” circumstances involving advanced age, physical or mental infirmity, exigent family circumstances, or other compelling reasons. The ALI used the federal “compassionate release” statute as its model in developing § 305.7, but removed the corrections department as gatekeeper because this had resulted in so few cases being brought back to court.
On February 17, 2016, the U.S. Sentencing Commission will hold a hearing to consider whether it should expand its policy guidance to courts considering government motions filed under the “compassionate release” authority. ALI member Kate Stith of Yale Law School will testify about the sentence reduction mechanisms that have been endorsed by ALI, focusing in particular on § 305.7.
This piece was contributed by ALI member Margaret Love of the Law Office of Margaret Love.
UPDATE: Read Professor Stith's Testimony from the February 17th hearing.