{"id":2998,"date":"2021-02-25T14:06:22","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T22:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2998"},"modified":"2021-02-25T14:06:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T22:06:22","slug":"should-felons-decide-what-sentences-felons-deserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2998","title":{"rendered":"Should Felons Decide What Sentences Felons Deserve?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sentencing Law and Policy has this thought-provoking post<\/a> urging President Biden to make filling Sentencing Commission slots a priority, and recommending\u00a0 —\u00a0 you’ll never guess\u00a0 —\u00a0 “diversity.”\u00a0 But it’s diversity of a notable kind.\u00a0 The post’s final paragraph tells the story in only slightly scrubbed language:<\/p>\n

In his pioneering 1972 book,\u00a0Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order<\/a><\/em>, Judge Marvin Frankel first advocated for a \u201cCommission on Sentencing\u201d to include \u201clawyers, judges, penologists, and criminologists, … sociologists, psychologists, business people, artists, and, lastly for emphasis, former or present prison inmates.\u201d\u00a0 As Judge Frankel explained, having justice-involved persons on a sentencing commission \u201cmerely recognizes what took too long to become obvious\u2014that the recipients of penal \u2018treatment\u2019 must have relevant things to say about it.\u201d\u00a0 Judge Frankel\u2019s insights remain ever so timely a half-century later, and the federal system can now follow a recent sound state example: Brandon Flood was\u00a0appointed Secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons<\/a>\u00a0in 2019, not despite but largely because of his lived experience as an inmate and his numerous encounters with the criminal justice system.\u00a0 President Biden\u2019s could and should consider going even further by including multiple persons with diverse, direct experiences with U.S. justice systems in his nominations to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What to make of the suggestion that the inmates should decide how long other inmates remain in the asylum?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It had previously been thought that living a decently law-abiding life, and thus showing respect for the property and safety of those around you, as well as an understanding of the need to obey the rules, was a minimum<\/em> qualification for the Commission.\u00a0 Knowledge of the theory and legal standards of sentencing practice would be a plus, too.<\/p>\n

It is not my purpose here to debate these old-fashioned qualifications\u00a0 —\u00a0 not because the debate would be unimportant, but because it would be useless.\u00a0 I don’t see any way that those who think a life of crime is a “plus” for a seat on the Sentencing Commission are going to get their minds changed at this point.<\/p>\n

So instead, I’d like to explore the specifics of the diversity they seek.\u00a0 There are, after all, all manner of crimes, and it must be the case that those given to The New Way of Thinking believe that some crimes have more “educational value,” for sentencing purposes, than others.\u00a0 So I’m going to set out a list of crimes and invite readers to hold forth on which have the greatest value as qualifications for a seat on the Sentencing Commission.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Child rape.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Fleecing old people out of their life savings.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Carjacking in which a weapon was (1) discharged, or (2) merely brandished (choose one).<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Human trafficking, especially of little girls.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Selling overdose levels of heroin to an addicted 15 year-old.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Revenge porn.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Identity theft to destroy the financial foundations of 100 young couples.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Burning a cross on a black neighbor’s lawn.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Polluting the water supply of a small city.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0 Murder for hire.<\/p>\n

Now that’s only ten.\u00a0 Obviously I’m leaving out lots and lots.\u00a0 But we have to start somewhere!\u00a0 Six of the seven Commission seats are vacant, so we need a sense of urgency in prioritizing what sort of criminal background would be most “beneficial” in getting the Commission up and running.<\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0 Bonus points for making an an argument as to why, as the SL&P post explicitly notes, we should look not merely to former, but to “present prison inmates.”\u00a0 Yet more bonus points if the present inmate is in disciplinary confinement for slashing a cellmate’s throat for refusing sexual favors.\u00a0 And still more bonus points for making the case that this sort of criminal or that should be, not merely a Sentencing Commissioner, but a federal judge\u00a0 —\u00a0 such judges having considerably more power over individual sentencing than mere Commissioners.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sentencing Law and Policy has this thought-provoking post urging President Biden to make filling Sentencing Commission slots a priority, and recommending\u00a0 —\u00a0 you’ll never guess\u00a0 —\u00a0 “diversity.”\u00a0 But it’s diversity of a notable kind.\u00a0 The post’s final paragraph tells the story in only slightly scrubbed language: In his pioneering 1972 book,\u00a0Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order, Judge Marvin Frankel first advocated for a \u201cCommission on Sentencing\u201d to include \u201clawyers, judges, penologists, and criminologists, … sociologists, psychologists, business people, artists, and, lastly for emphasis, former or present prison inmates.\u201d\u00a0 As Judge Frankel explained, having justice-involved persons on a sentencing commission \u201cmerely recognizes what took too long to become obvious\u2014that the recipients of penal \u2018treatment\u2019 must have relevant things to say about it.\u201d\u00a0 Judge Frankel\u2019s insights remain ever so timely a half-century later, and the federal system can now follow a recent sound state example: Brandon Flood was\u00a0appointed Secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons\u00a0in 2019, not despite but largely because of his lived experience as an inmate and his numerous encounters with the criminal justice system.\u00a0 President Biden\u2019s could and should consider going even further by including multiple persons with diverse, direct experiences with U.S. justice systems in his nominations to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. What to make of the suggestion that the inmates should decide how long other inmates remain in the asylum?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judicial-selection","category-sentencing"],"yoast_head":"\nShould Felons Decide What Sentences Felons Deserve? - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2998\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should Felons Decide What Sentences Felons Deserve? - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sentencing Law and Policy has this thought-provoking post urging President Biden to make filling Sentencing Commission slots a priority, and recommending\u00a0 —\u00a0 you’ll never guess\u00a0 —\u00a0 “diversity.”\u00a0 But it’s diversity of a notable kind.\u00a0 The post’s final paragraph tells the story in only slightly scrubbed language: In his pioneering 1972 book,\u00a0Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order, Judge Marvin Frankel first advocated for a \u201cCommission on Sentencing\u201d to include \u201clawyers, judges, penologists, and criminologists, … sociologists, psychologists, business people, artists, and, lastly for emphasis, former or present prison inmates.\u201d\u00a0 As Judge Frankel explained, having justice-involved persons on a sentencing commission \u201cmerely recognizes what took too long to become obvious\u2014that the recipients of penal \u2018treatment\u2019 must have relevant things to say about it.\u201d\u00a0 Judge Frankel\u2019s insights remain ever so timely a half-century later, and the federal system can now follow a recent sound state example: Brandon Flood was\u00a0appointed Secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons\u00a0in 2019, not despite but largely because of his lived experience as an inmate and his numerous encounters with the criminal justice system.\u00a0 President Biden\u2019s could and should consider going even further by including multiple persons with diverse, direct experiences with U.S. justice systems in his nominations to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. 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