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Sentencing Guidelines
In 1984, Congress addressed the issue of fairness in sentencing by passing the Sentencing Reform
Act. This act created a new federal agency, the United States Sentencing Commission, and
instructed it to develop uniform guidelines for sentencing in federal cases.

The guidelines were to be fair so that similar offenders convicted of similar crimes would receive
similar sentences. The guidelines were also to be honest: the sentence received was to be the
sentence served. Parole would be abolished. People would no longer turn what appeared to be a
long sentence into a short one. Inmates could still earn credit for good behavior, but this was limited
to 54 days a year. The guidelines were to be certain. A person convicted of an offense would have
a clear idea of the range of sentence he or she could receive.

The guidelines became effective November 1, 1987, and apply to all federal felony offenses and
most serious misdemeanor offenses. To learn more, please visit the United States Sentencing
Commission’s website at www.ussc.gov.

The Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Booker, 125 S.Ct. 738 (2005), that the mandatory nature of the
sentencing guidelines subjected them to the jury trial requirements of the Sixth Amendment of the
Constitution. The Court further held that since it was not Congress’ intent to have sentencing facts
decided by juries, the appropriate remedy was to strike those provisions of the Sentencing Reform
Act of 1984 that made the sentencing guidelines mandatory. The result is a system in which the
sentencing courts are require to consider the sentencing options recommended by the sentencing
guidelines, bu the judges are free to impose any sentence authorized by Congress. In some parts of
the country, such sentences are known as “variances.”

In imposing a sentence outside of the advisory guideline system, the court is expected to identify the
factor(s) in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) that warrant a sentence outside the guideline system. The officer
should identify facts in this section as well as cite the specific provision(s) from §3553(a).