Sentencing Project

The Sentencing Project
Abbreviation TSP
Formation 1986
Purpose "The Sentencing Project is dedicated to changing the way Americans think about crime and punishment."
Headquarters Washington, District of Columbia
Executive Director
 Marc Mauer
Website http://www.sentencingproject.org/

The Sentencing Project is a national non-profit criminal justice-oriented 501(c)3 organization established in 1986 in Washington, D.C.. The organization advocates for change in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.

History

The Sentencing Project grew out of pilot programs established by Malcolm C. Young in the early 1980s. In 1981, Young became director of a project of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) designed to establish defense-based sentencing advocacy programs. These programs worked with defense attorneys to provide judges with sentencing proposals that contained an assessment of the defendant’s social history and an individualized sentencing plan that was responsive to the needs of both victims and offenders. The NLADA project successfully developed sentencing advocacy programs in six cities over the next several years. In 1984, the project came under the sponsorship of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, which continued until 1986.[1]

In 1986, 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 organization is now considered a premier source of information and analysis, and serves as a resource for policymakers, academics, advocacy organizations, and media. 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.

Accomplishments

Training and Program Development 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. This included annual conferences on sentencing advocacy beginning in 1989 and the formation of the National Association of Sentencing Advocates (NASA) in 1992. 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.[2]

Research and Public Education 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. These have included:

The Sentencing Project also produces a range of briefing papers, fact sheets, and policy analyses on a regular basis. An annual report, The State of Sentencing, provides an overview of legislative measures adopted around the nation, and staff frequently contribute to academic and professional journals as well.[11]

Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, has published two books. Race to Incarcerate, first published in 1999, traces the evolution of the explosion in the prison population in recent decades, and was a semi-finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. A second edition was published in 2006, and a graphic novel version was published in 2013.[12] With co-editor Meda Chesney-Lind, Mauer also published Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment (2002), a collection of essays that examine the effects of imprisonment on families and communities.[13]

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 publication features contributions from leading scholars, practitioners, and reform advocates.[14]

Advocacy

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. At the federal level, highlights have included contributing to the adoption of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which reduced the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses, and changes to the federal sentencing guidelines which reduced crack cocaine offense levels as well. 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. The organization has also played a leading role in campaigns to end the practice of sentencing juveniles to life without parole, and submitted an amicus brief which was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2010 decision in Graham v. Florida that barred such penalties in non-homicide offenses.[15]

Support for reform at the state level has included engagement with policymakers and reform organizations on issues including sentencing policy, racial disparity, felony disenfranchisement, and juvenile justice. 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.[16] The organization has also championed the concept of racial impact statements that can allow policymakers to project any undue racial effects of proposed sentencing legislation. In 2008, the states of Connecticut and Iowa each adopted such legislation, and in 2013, Oregon did so as well.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "About Us | The Sentencing Project". The Sentencing Project. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  2. ↑ History of Defense-Based Sentencing Advocacy and NASAMS
  3. ↑ Young Black Men and the Criminal Justice System: A Growing National Problem
  4. ↑ Americans Behind Bars: A Comparison of International Rates of Incarceration
  5. ↑ Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later
  6. ↑ Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States
  7. ↑ Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers
  8. ↑ Distorted Priorities: Drug Offenders in State Prisons
  9. ↑ No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America
  10. ↑ The Lives of Juvenile Lifers: Findings from a National Survey
  11. ↑ The State of Sentencing 2011: Developments in Policy and Practice
  12. ↑ The New Press - Race to Incarcerate
  13. ↑ The New Press - Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment
  14. ↑ To Build a Better Criminal Justice System: 25 Experts Envision the Next 25 Years of Reform
  15. ↑ U.S. Supreme Court - Graham v. Florida
  16. ↑ Expanding the Vote: State Felony Disenfranchisement Reform, 1997-2010
  17. ↑ Racial Impact Statements: Changing Policies to Address Disparities
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