Sentencing without Guidelines
eBook - PDF

Sentencing without Guidelines

  1. 192 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Sentencing without Guidelines

About this book

Sentencing matters. Reform initiatives hope to impart more uniformity and fairness in sentencing. Tough-on-crime laws like "three strikes" and mandatory minimum provisions deprive judges of sentencing discretion. While sentencing guidelines have been adopted by approximately 20 states since the early 1980s, many judges operate without guidelines.

Sentencing without Guidelines is Rhys Hester's deep dive into how South Carolina, which never passed sentencing guideline legislation, nonetheless created meaningful punishment reform. It achieved uniformity in sentencing with a traveling circuit of judges, informal norms among judges, and the unique phenomenon of the "Plea Judge" to manage cases.

Hester examines how prior convictions, race, and geographical differences impact sentences to explain why individuals get the criminal sentences they do. He also explores how legal reform mechanisms can influence punishment goals and policy. Sentencing without Guidelines shows the benefits and drawbacks South Carolina experienced as it met sentencing reform goals. These lessons can be translated into policy for other jurisdictions.

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Yes, you can access Sentencing without Guidelines by Rhys Hester in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Law & Law Theory & Practice. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. 1. Introduction
  4. 2. A Brief History of Sentencing Reform
  5. 3. Sentencing without Guidelines
  6. 4. Judicial Rotation as Centripetal Force
  7. 5. Judging Prior Record
  8. 6. The Conundrum of Punishment Reform: Tension between Uniformity and Discretion
  9. 7. Conclusion: Implications and Future Directions
  10. Methodological Appendix: Data, Methodologies, and Analytic Strategies
  11. Notes
  12. References
  13. Index