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Adaptation of Existing Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court Sentencing Guidelines to the Revised Arizona Criminal Code

NCJ Number
73615
Author(s)
J M Kress; A M Gelman
Date Published
1980
Length
84 pages
Annotation
A technical assistance report focusing on adaptation of existing sentencing guidelines of Maricopa County Arizona's superior court to the revised Arizona criminal code is presented.
Abstract
The court's request for technical assistance asked for aid in determining whether adaptation was feasible and, if so, to actually reconstruct the guidelines accordingly. The consulting team relied on telephone and postal communication in providing this assistance as well as on one onsite visit. The two-phased analytical research included updating the system already in place and revising this updated system so as to conform to the requirements of the new penal code. The first step in preparing for the feedback and review of the sentencing guidelines was to clean the available sentencing data. This step involved an image listing, verification of data, and the running of a series of error statements designed to check internal consistency. The cleaned data was then examined to determine whether an adjustment in either the time or type of sentence would result in more sentences falling within the guidelines. During the actual revision process, as much of the presently available data as possible was utilized. Because of the class system of the new code, the revised guidelines had offenses grouped by felony and misdemeanor classes rather than by previously used generic classifications. After determining which old offenses fell into new crime categories, the consultants translated the old guidelines, except for the interclass rank noted, into the new code. In addition, the items across all offense types were standardized. Extensive appendixes reflecting guideline and code information comprise the bulk of the report.