SENTENCING GUIDELINES

Federal Judge, ABA Join Call For Reform

A federal judge and the American Bar Association have taken exception
to mandatory minimum sentencing laws at the state and federal levels.

Judge William G. Young, chief justice of the federal district court in
Boston, on Monday ruled unconstitutional federal sentencing laws that
limit judicial discretion and give prosecutors to much power.

Judge Young lashed out at the Feeney Amendment, which limited judges'
ability to impose lenient sentences, calling it "the saddest and most
counterproductive episode in the evolution of federal sentencing doctrine."

He took exception to some practices of prosecutors in sentencing
hearings. He sighted the use of information about crimes with which
defendants have never been charged and even crimes of which defendants
have been acquitted in order to obtain longer sentences.

His views are shared by others in the federal judiciary, among them
Supreme Court Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Antonin M. Kennedy.

And the Judicial Conference of the United States, headed by chief
justice William H. Rehnquist, has opposed some legislative
restrictions on judicial flexibility.

"Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences
to long," justice Kennedy, a moderate conservative, said last year
when he asked the American Bar Association to look into sentencing
laws and other inequities in the criminal justice system.

After nearly a year of study, the ABA report released Wednesday
recommended that unfair mandatory minimum sentencing laws be
abolished. The group said they leave little room for judges to take
into consideration differences between cases or exceptional
circumstances that may warrant lesser sentences.

Mandatory sentencing also fails to allow judges to consider
alternatives such as drug treatment which may be more effective in
deterring repeat offenders.

The laws have come at great expense, contributing to a nearly 400
percent increase in the cost of running state and federal prison
systems, soaring from $9 billion in 1982 to $49 billion 1999.

"For more than 20 years, we have gotten tougher on crime," said ABA
President Dennis Archer. "Now we need to get smarter."

Congress and state legislatures should re-examine their sentencing
policies and laws in light of the growing opposition.