Mark Osler is a well respected law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. The issue of federal sentencing policy is, of course, quite important…but, the reality is the numbers are in the sentences imposed by state court judges. Even if you are not now (nor ever are going to be) a federal judge, this article is worth reading and thinking about.

A ‘Holocaust in Slow Motion?’ America’s Mass Incarceration and the Role of Discretion

Mark William Osler

University of St. Thomas – School of Law (Minnesota)

Mark W. Bennett

U.S. District Court (Northern District of Iowa)

2014

7 DePaul Journal for Social Justice 117 (2014)
U of St. Thomas (Minnesota) Legal Studies Research Paper No. 14-30

Abstract:

Numbers don’t lie: America has suffered an explosion in imprisonment that has been fundamentally unrelated to actual crime levels. In this article, a federal District Court Judge and a former federal prosecutor examine the roots of this explosion with a focus on the discretion of Congress, the United States Sentencing Commission, federal prosecutors, and judges. This dark period may be in its twilight, though, and the authors conclude by describing specific actions each of these four groups could take to dismantle the cruel machinery of mass incarceration.