Smart sentencing makes a lot of sense; what are the arguments against it?
It’s been surprisingly hard to ferret out real arguments against the notion that we should do a more responsible job of crime reduction when sentencing people by trying to focus on what works on which offenders. Most of the contentions are either withheld, or implied indirectly in the questions I have attempted to answer elsewhere on this page. I have tried to elicit some direct answers from the author of the proposed revisions to the Model Penal Code, Prof. Kevin Reitz. His proposal represents a profound retreat from the present MPC sentencing provision which emphasizes public safety, and I have published substantial comments arguing that this is the wrong decision. Comments on the Model Penal Code: Sentencing, Preliminary Draft No. 1, 30 American Journal of Criminal Law 135 (2003) [University of Texas Law School], [Available on WestLaw at 30 AMJCRL 135.] After a long telephone conference with Prof. Reitz, I sent him a letter outlining what I understood to be our agreements and our di
It’s been surprisingly hard to ferret out real arguments against the notion that we should do a more responsible job of crime reduction when sentencing people by trying to focus on what works on which offenders. Most of the contentions are either withheld, or implied indirectly in the questions I have attempted to answer elsewhere on this page. I have tried to elicit some direct answers from the author of the proposed revisions to the Model Penal Code, Prof. Kevin Reitz. His proposal represents a profound retreat from the present MPC sentencing provision which emphasizes public safety, and I have published substantial comments arguing that this is the wrong decision. Comments on the Model Penal Code: Sentencing, Preliminary Draft No. 1, 30 American Journal of Criminal Law 135 (2003) [University of Texas Law School], [Available on WestLaw at 30 AMJCRL 135.] After a long telephone conference with Prof. Reitz, I sent him a letter outlining what I understood to be our agreements and our di
