Sanity And Sentencing

Newsweek, December, 2007 by Ellis Cose

The ‘get tough’ policies of the 1980s don’t work; they undermine faith in the fairness of the justice system.

For two decades, the federal government has pursued, prosecuted and sentenced cocaine offenders in a way that borders on insanity—targeting petty criminals over serious drug dealers and, in doing so, undermining its own mission. Last Monday, the Supreme Court came down on the side of common sense and, in two decisions, empowered federal judges to reject sentencing guidelines rooted in hysteria and ignorance. Now judges, “who actually see the people and understand the local community,” can better consider their communities’ interests, said Jack B. Weinstein, a federal district judge in New York.

The significance of the issue—and the enormity of the shift...

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