Racial Disparity Committee

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The Sentencing Project Executive Director Marc Mauer to Testify at Feb 16 U.S. Sentencing Commission

The Sentencing Project Executive Director Marc Mauer will be testifying today at a hearing of the U.S. Sentencing Commission on federal sentencing options following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Booker v. United States. The Booker decision changed the federal sentencing guidelines from a mandatory system to an advisory one, thus granting greater discretion to federal judges. Today’s hearing has been called to assess changes in sentencing since that decision and implications for policy development.

The testimony focuses on issues of racial disparity in federal sentencing, and raises the following issues:

• There is no single cause of racial disparity in sentencing outcomes, and we need to examine how decision making at each stage of the court process affects ultimate outcomes.
• Enhanced guidelines discretion for judges now makes disparities in the imposition of mandatory penalties even more significant, a development which adversely affects black males.
• Responses to disparity in sentencing can best be addressed by expanding use of the “safety valve” in many drug cases and by creating a broader array of non-prison sentencing options.