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Sentencing commissions

Booker and Beyond Analyzing Sentencing Reform and Exploring New Research Directions

January 2022

This webinar features a discussion of previously published research on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 Booker decision - which effectively transformed the United States Sentencing Guidelines from a mandatory, to an advisory, system. The presentation will address selected research findings from the last 15 years. Individual participants will briefly review their previous research findings with particular attention paid to the analytic methods used.

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Reforming New Orleans' Criminal Justice System: The Role of Data and Research

September 2012
Series
Research for the Real World

With its criminal justice system in disarray following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans invited the Vera Institute of Justice to examine the city's court and jail operations. For five years, Vera has been tracking arrest-to-first-appearance time, custodial arrests versus summonses, the granting of pretrial release, and many other decision-making points. Based on analysis of these data, Vera is making policy recommendations to assist with the implementation of new procedures and to ensure performance monitoring.

Alternative Sentencing Policies for Drug Offenders

June 2009

The panel presentations from the 2009 NIJ Conference are based on an NIJ-sponsored evaluation of the effectiveness of Kansas Senate Bill 123, which mandates community-based drug abuse treatment for drug possession by nonviolent offenders in lieu of prison. 

Sentencing data (United States Sentencing Commission)

Explore data from the United States Sentencing Commission. The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency within the judicial branch of the federal government. The Commission's primary mission is to promulgate and amend the federal sentencing guidelines. The Commission's other responsibilities include: (1) establishing a data collection, analysis, and research program to serve as a clearinghouse and information center for information on federal sentencing practices...