Recidivism Among Offenders Receiving Retroactive Sentence Reductions

Abstract

for offenses involving crack cocaine. The amendment, whichbecame effective November 1, 2007, reduced by two levels thebase offense levels assigned by the Drug Quantity Table for eachquantity of crack cocaine (the “2007 Crack Cocaine Amendment”).Also in 2007, the Commission voted to give retroactive effect to theamendment, which allowed judges to consider motions forretroactive application of the amendment and reduce sentences forthose incarcerated under the previous guidelines. The retroactiveapplication of the 2007 Crack Cocaine Amendment took effect onMarch 3, 2008.This publication reports on recidivism of crack cocaine offenderswho were released immediately before and after implementation ofthe 2007 Crack Cocaine Amendment, and followed in thecommunity for five years. In order to study the impact ofretroactive sentence reduction on recidivism rates, staff analyzedthe recidivism rate for a group of crack cocaine offenders whosesentences were reduced pursuant to retroactive application of the2007 Crack Cocaine Amendment. Staff then compared that rate tothe recidivism rate for a comparison group of offenders who wouldhave been eligible to seek a reduced sentence under the 2007Crack Cocaine Amendment, but were released before the effectivedate of that amendment after serving their full prison terms lessgood time and other earned credits.The question addressed by this study is: “Were offenders whoreceived a reduced sentence retroactively under the 2007 CrackCocaine Amendment more likely to recidivate than similarlysituated offenders who did not receive a reduced sentence?” Asdiscussed more fully below, there is no evidence that offenderswhose sentence lengths were reduced pursuant to retroactiveapplication of the 2007 Crack Cocaine Amendment had higher