Frankel at 50 | Sentencing Information for Modern Judges

In the closing chapter of Criminal Sentences: Law without Order, Judge Frankel presciently imagined “the possibility of using computers as an aid toward orderly thought in sentencing.” That notion is quite real as justice systems consider whether and how sentencing decision-making should include consideration of computer-generated risk assessment tools. In the federal system, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has recently unveiled a data-driven tool known as JSIN designed to enable judges to see how other federal judges have sentenced comparable federal defendants. These tools raise pressing questions such as whether these tools should be stressed in (or left out of) presentencing reports and whether they make traditional guideline systems less important for consistent sentencing decision-making.

SPEAKERS:
Senior District Judge Charles Breyer, United States District Court,
Northern District of California
Mark Bergstrom, Associate Teaching Professor of Sociology and Criminology; Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing
Chief Justice Tina Nadeau, New Hampshire Superior Court

MODERATOR:
Steven L. Chanenson, Professor of Law, Faculty Director, The David F. and Constance B. Girard-diCarlo Center for Ethics, Integrity and Compliance, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law

This panel was part of "Frankel at 50: A Half-Century’s Perspective on Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order," hosted by the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, the Council on Criminal Justice, the Federal Sentencing Reporter and the New York City Bar Association. The event was held in person on Monday, April 24, 2023 at the New York City Bar Association.