As a matter of recent history in this country, we’re at quite an important moment, where the conversation and political attitudes towards criminal justice policy and sentencing policy seem to be shifting quite dramatically. Members of Congress and policy makers, law makers in state systems are talking a lot about the problems we have created through mass incarceration and mass punitiveness in other respects. This moment in history, I think is particularly fortunate and fortuitous for the Model Penal Code because we are arriving at the point of completion just as this new or changed national debate is occurring. – Kevin Reitz, Project Reporter
Reporters
Kevin Reitz
Reporter, Model Penal Code: Sentencing
Kevin Reitz is the James Annenberg La Vea Land Grant Chair in Criminal Procedure Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. In 1993, he organized the pilot meeting of the National Association of Sentencing Commissions, which has gone on to become a nationwide resource for states contemplating or undertaking the process of sentencing reform. He continues to work with NASC and with state sentencing commissions nationwide.
Cecelia M. Klingele
Associate Reporter, Model Penal Code: Sentencing
Cecelia M. Klingele is an Assistant Professor at The University of Wisconsin Law School. Her academic research focuses on criminal justice administration, with an emphasis on community supervision of those on conditional release. She serves as a faculty associate of the Frank J. Remington Center and the Institute for Research on Poverty, and a research affiliate of the University of Minnesota Robina Institute’s Sentencing Law & Policy Program.
Douglas Berman | October 25, 2016 | Sentencing
The question in the title of this post is prompted by this notable new New York Times editorial headlined “The Death Penalty, Nearing Its End.” Here is the full text of the editorial: Although the death penalty is still considered constitutional by the...
Jennifer Morinigo | October 24, 2016 | American Indian Law, Data Privacy, Policing, Sentencing, Sexual Assault
At its October 2016 meeting, the Council took the following actions concerning project drafts: The Law of American Indians There was discussion of portions of Council Draft No. 3, but, due to insufficient time, no approval was sought. The Council will continue its...
FAMM and Pauline Toboulidis | October 21, 2016 | Sentencing
The above chart represents states that have implemented sentence reform statutes as they relate to mandatory minimum sentencing. Though Massachusetts has enacted sentencing laws that reduce some drug mandatory minimum sentences, last week the Massachusetts Supreme...
Brandon Garrett | October 11, 2016 | Sentencing
When is prejudice prejudicial? That is the question the Supreme Court justices heard on Wednesday in the case of Duane Buck. In 1996, Buck murdered his ex-girlfriend in front of her children along with a man he thought she was sleeping with. At his death penalty trial...
John Gleeson | September 14, 2016 | Sentencing
Our nation is truly at a crossroads when it comes to sentencing policy. Since the adoption of the original Model Penal Code in 1962, America’s prison, jail, probation, and parole populations have exploded. During the same period, the types and severity of both the...
Margaret Love | September 7, 2016 | Sentencing
The provisions on sentence reduction in the Model Penal Code: Sentencing project have recently played a key role in federal sentencing reform efforts. In one case a federal task force on corrections credited the ALI for one of its recommendations; in another. the...
