Nonequivalence Between Imprisonment and Fines in United States Sentencing Guidelines

Abstract

Objective: Seeking rational uniformity and proportionality of sentencing in United States Sentencing Guidelines. The United States has been establishing and updating its sentencing guidelines and structure based on the Sentencing Reform Act since 1984, aiming to improve the ability of the criminal justice system to fight crimes through an effective and fair sentencing system. Thus the objective here is to evaluate whether that aim has been met.   Method: Through normative research, the economic analysis of law was utilized to study the sentencing in the 2021 United States Sentencing Guidelines and its manual, especially comparing imprisonment and fine sentences. At the same time, comparing the imprisonment sentence and the fine sentence as the imprisonment alternative with the help of local economic variables, the minimum wage. The differentiation between the fine sentence or fines and its imprisonment alternative is calculated for each statute in the US Sentencing Fine, especially under §5E1.2.(c). (3). - Fines for Individual Defendants’ Fine Table, and combining it with the minimum and maximum values in Sentencing Table in §5A to find the differentiation value or reference value or each row to analyse if any pattern emerged. Then compare it with the second objective, the United States’s national minimum wage is used to calculate the minimum and maximum imprisonment statute to calculate the amount of money a normal person working legally in the worst condition, paid in the minimum wage, can collect in the same length amount of time.    Results: This research shows that: a) there is no equivalence between imprisonment and a fine sentence in the United States Sentencing Guidelines, and b) imprisonment has lesser economic value than its alternative sentence. Both findings are against the purpose of seeking rational uniformity and proportionality of sentencing. The nonequivalence above demonstrates the structure and guidelines of the United States sentencing system, which have several excellences compared to the sentencing system of other countries, such as Indonesia’s prior Penal Code Book. However, the United States sentencing system is also flawed, which needs improvements in applying economic analysis and efforts to fix the flaws.