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Binding Sentencing Guidelines: A Means of Controlling Utah's Prison Population

NCJ Number
134819
Journal
Utah Law Review Volume: 1990 Issue: 2 Dated: (1990) Pages: 309-345
Author(s)
S W Rodgers
Date Published
1990
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This analysis of prison overcrowding in Utah concludes that the State legislature should provide for a sentencing commission to develop binding presumptive sentencing guidelines to ensure more consistency and predictability in sentencing and thereby to control the State's expanding prison population.
Abstract
Utah's correctional facilities are already overcrowded, and new facilities become full as soon as they are built. The limitations on funds for additional facilities point to the need for a system that effectively controls inmate population. A sentencing commission could control the expanding prison population and determine why, how, and when to imprison convicted offenders, thereby providing consistent direction to the entire criminal justice system. The legislature should also empower Utah's appellate courts to review these sentences to ensure that the guidelines are followed. Furthermore, the enabling legislation should instruct the sentencing commission to coordinate sentencing policy with available correctional resources; the guidelines should not allow the prison population to exceed capacity. Footnotes (Author summary modified)