Sentencing Issues: A Summary

Abstract

This document contains three summaries prepared as an introduction for members of the Alaska Legislature to criminal sentencing issues: (1) A paper on presumptive sentencing reviews the study "Fair and Certain Punishment: Report of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Criminal Sentencing" (McGraw-Hill, 1976), and presents a guide for legislative action prior to the enactment of a presumptive sentencing system. (2) A report on sentencing standards in Alaska presents excerpts from Alaska Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Erwin's article "Five Years of Sentence Review in Alaska" (5 U.C.L.A. Law Review 1 (1975)). (3) A final paper, "An Introduction to Basic Sentencing Issues" – an edited version of a memorandum by Jerold Israel of University of Michigan Law School, discusses a series of proposals that acknowledged experts have advanced concerning the reform of the laws governing sentencing.