Dissent from the United States Sentencing Commission's Proposed Guidelines

Abstract

I believe that the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984,1 which created the United States Sentencing Commission, contains two main directives. First, the Commission's guidelines must provide a rational and principled sentencing system2 that will further the purposes of just punishment and crime control.3 Second, the guidelines must reduce unwarranted disparity among sentences for similar offenders who commit similar offenses.4 The Act provides