September 10, 2024–Due Process Institute, the Federal Public and Community Defenders, and a coalition of civil rights organizations urged members of the U.S. Senate to quickly confirm commissioners to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Time is of the essence because, absent action by the Senate, the terms of two voting members expire on October 31, 2024.
The Commission plays a critical role in the federal criminal legal system. It promulgates the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which are the starting point and anchor for every criminal sentence handed down by a federal district judge and which exert enormous influence on the amount of time the approximately 60,000-to-70,000 people convicted of federal crimes each year must spend behind bars. It promulgates policy statements, which, among other things, are critical to ensuring full and appropriate implementation of the First Step Act. And it sets the agenda for research into the pattern and practice of federal sentencing, providing real-time data to Congress about necessary guidelines reforms and the impact of federal sentencing on rehabilitation, recidivism, and public safety. The Commission’s work is particularly critical to the fair and equitable administration of the federal criminal legal system in light of the high rate of cases resolved by plea in the federal system.
The Commission’s ability to do its job will be severely compromised if it loses two voting members in October. The sheer volume of work confronting the Commission right now means that it needs all-hands-on-deck to fulfill its responsibilities to the judiciary, to Congress, and to the people—overwhelmingly people of color—who face loss of liberty in federal courts each year.