Established as a national non-profit 501 ( c ) 3 organization in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U. S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.

The Sentencing Project was founded to provide defense lawyers with sentencing advocacy training and to reduce the reliance on incarceration.

Since that time, The Sentencing Project has become a leader in the effort to bring national attention to disturbing trends and inequities in the criminal justice system with a successful formula that includes the publication of groundbreaking research, aggressive media campaigns strategic advocacy for policy reform.

In 1986, Malcolm C. Young incorporated The Sentencing Project as an independent organization to continue the program training and development work.

Through the mid-1990s The Sentencing Project provided training and technical assistance in sentencing advocacy to programs in more than 20 states.

Beginning in the late 1980s, The Sentencing Project became engaged in research and public education on a broad range of criminal justice policy issues.

The advocacy campaigns of The Sentencing Project have successfully contributed to significant sentencing and drug policy reforms at both the federal and state level.

In 2005, long-time assistant director Marc Mauer became the executive director of The Sentencing Project.

The Sentencing Project provided technical assistance in program development and skills training for hundreds of staff engaged in defense-based sentencing advocacy for a period of 15 years beginning in 1986.

NASA functioned under the auspices of The Sentencing Project and served as a professional leadership and development association of staff engaged in sentencing advocacy and death penalty mitigation programs.

The Sentencing Project has produced a broad range of policy reports that have documented issues and trends in the U. S. justice system, and which have helped to shape public policy debate on key issues.

The Sentencing Project also produces a range of briefing papers, fact sheets, and policy analyses on a regular basis.

Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, has published two books.

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of The Sentencing Project in 2011, the organization published a collection of essays, To Build a Better Criminal Justice System: 25 Experts Envision the Next 25 Years of Reform.

The Sentencing Project has long been engaged in advocating for criminal justice and juvenile justice reform, including legislative advocacy, public education, and engagement with practitioners.

Staff of The Sentencing Project have are frequently invited to testify before Congress, the United States Sentencing Commission, U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, and other agencies.

In the area of juvenile justice The Sentencing Project has been engaged in efforts to strengthen and enhance the mandate of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, including approaches to reducing racial disparity in detention.

As documented by The Sentencing Project in Expanding the Vote: State Felony Disenfranchisement Reform, 1997-2010, 23 states enacted reforms to their disenfranchisement policies and practices between 1997 – 2010.

Disfranchisement due to criminal conviction is discussed extensively by the Sentencing Project, an organization attempting to reduce prison sentences and ameliorate negative effects of incarceration.

* The Sentencing Project.

According to The Sentencing Project, as of 2007, the number of women incarcerated in prisons has more than doubled the rate of their male counterparts since 1985

Many prison abolitionist view women's entry and exit from prison as a reflection of women's status in the general populations ’ society, This view is further highlighted with statistics offered by The Sentencing Project on women's incarceration.

As of 2007, the most statistically significant results discussed by The Sentencing Project include:

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are rules that set out a uniform sentencing policy for individuals and organizations convicted of felonies and serious ( Class A ) misdemeanors in the United States federal courts system.

Jurisdiction: ( 1 ) Oversight of the Department of Justice's ( a ) Criminal Division ; ( b ) Drug Enforcement Administration ; ( c ) Executive Office of the U. S. Attorneys ; ( d ) Violence Against Women's Office ; and ( e ) U. S. Marshals Office ; ( 2 ) Oversight of the U. S. Sentencing Commission ; ( 3 ) Youth violence and directly related issues ; ( 4 ) Federal programs under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as Amended ( including the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act ), and ( 5 ) Criminal justice and victim's rights legislation ; ( 6 ) Oversight of the Office of National Drug Control Policy ; ( 7 ) Oversight of Community Oriented Policing Office and Related law Enforcement grants ; and ( 8 ) Oversight of the U. S. Secret Service.

Unlike many special-purpose " study " commissions within the executive branch, the U. S. Sentencing Commission was established by Congress as a permanent, independent agency within the judicial branch.

According to the records compiled by the United States Sentencing Commission, in 2009, the United States Department of Justice typically convicted a little over 81, 000 people ; of this, approximately 800 are convicted of money laundering as the primary or most serious charge.

United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines for bank robbery mandate long prison terms, which are usually further enhanced by the use or carrying of loaded firearms, prior criminal convictions, and the absence of parole from the federal prison system.

In September 2002, Cianci was sentenced to serve five years in federal prison by Judge Torres, who opted for a higher sentence than the minimum required by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

ACT New Zealand MP Stephen Franks was critical of the remarks, stating " I don't think she was regarded as one of the most weighty judges and she's putting herself into a difficult constitutional position by weighing in in this area ", as was the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

In 2009, a government led by the National Party augmented the Act with the Land Transport ( Enforcement Powers ) Amendment Act and the Sentencing ( Vehicle Confiscation ) Amendment Act, which allow police to confiscate and " crush " ( correctly, dismantle for salable parts and destroy the remainder ) vehicles on the third offence within four years, issue infringements for " cruising " and prosecute street racing and " antisocial " behaviour, by creating temporary by-laws.

This fine was changed by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 from $ 100 to not more than $ 5, 000.

In the federal system, judges ' authority to suspend sentences has been abolished, by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, through the United States Sentencing Commission, and upheld by Mistretta v. United States.

* State sentencing commission responses to Blakely, compiled by the United States Sentencing Commission

* Sentencing Law and Policy Blog by Prof. Douglas Berman, Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

The Guidelines are the product of the United States Sentencing Commission, which was created by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984.

Sentencing criteria already in use by judges was thus codified as guidelines.

Though the Federal Sentencing Guidelines were styled as mandatory, the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in United States v. Booker found that the Guidelines, as originally constituted, violated the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury, and the remedy chosen was excision of those provisions of the law establishing the Guidelines as mandatory.

Probation is also authorized if the applicable guideline range is in Zone B of the Sentencing Table and the court imposes a condition or combination of conditions requiring intermittent confinement, community confinement, or home detention as provided in, but at least one month of the sentence must be satisfied by imprisonment.

In 2010, the U. S. Sentencing Commission proposed expanding Zones B and C, in recognition of the fact that many offenders are sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in order to receive the benefit of good time under U. S. federal law.

U. S. A. Federal Sentencing Guidelines now make it possible to hold corporate officers liable for failing to exercise due care and due diligence in the management of their information systems.

Insider trading has a base offense level of 8, which puts it in Zone A under the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines.

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are followed in federal cases and have been created to ensure a standard of uniformity in all cases decided in the federal courts.

" Kenneth Clarke announced an amendment to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill which would criminalise squatting in residential buildings.

Sentencing is the sole prerogative of judges.

On the 25 July 2006 the Sentencing Guidelines Council published Definitive Guideline on Robbery.

In November 2005, the Sentencing Guidelines Council issued new draft guidelines concerning robbery.

For example, this procedure was used in the Watergate scandal-related case, United States v. Nixon,, and in the 2005 decision involving the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, United States v. Booker,.