Authors

Andrew W. Grindrod

Bottom-Up Federal Sentencing Reform

Abstract

Today, about 160,000 people live behind the bars of a federal prison. That is roughly the population of Alexandria, Virginia. Starting from the premise that the federal system’s contribution to mass incarceration should be curbed and recognizing that broad legislative reform seems unlikely, this Article considers the federal judiciary’s potential role in sentencing reform.

Bottom-up sentencing reform consists of federal trial judges exercising their decisional authority in individual cases to engage with the fundamental premises and assumptions that underlie traditional sentencing decisions, categorically rejecting them when appropriate. This approach to reform is available under current law. In fact, a few prominent examples of this type of reform already exist. This Article proposes expanding those existing models and concludes that the benefits of more ambitious judge-led reform are not offset by potential critiques. In the absence of top-down reform, federal trial judges should use their discretion and fact-finding power to reform federal sentencing.

Repository Citation

Andrew W. Grindrod, Bottom-Up Federal Sentencing Reform, 65 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 785 (2024), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol65/iss4/3