All For One Or One For All? - The Continued Debate Over Sentencing Uniformity And The Sentencing Guidelines

2012
American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section's "The State of Criminal Justice"
2011 saw the strong revival of the debate over judicial sentencing discretion and disparity. This chapter reviews the differing opinions offered by policymakers and judges over the past year, and describes a number of reforms to the United States Sentencing Guidelines promoted by the United States Sentencing Commission itself. This debate is unlikely to result soon in greater real or perceived sentencing uniformity absent reductions in sentences for certain categories of crime or structural reforms to the Guidelines to allow for greater judicial discretion within the Guidelines regime.