Looking at Sentences, 6-19-2010

I think I mentioned the federal Sentencing Guidelines before. If not, the Sentencing Guidelines come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, they provide a set of numbers for determining a sentence without being mandatory for the federal courts.

(I have no idea what pay this Commission receives or the cost of publishing its Guidelines, but here are more examples of your tax dollars at work.)

The statute says my sentence is 5 -20 years.

The sentencing guidelines gave out a number exceeding the statutory maximum. Does this make any sense? No, it does not.

Congress by-passed the Sentencing Commission and increased the guideline numbers. See United States v. Dorvee; this sets out the recent history of the guidelines applicable to my case.

The government offered me a plea. They agree to a sentence not to exceed 151 months and will allow me to argue for a lesser sentence.

This sentence must be served in prison. (At the taxpayer's expense.) The law provides for no alternative form of sentencing - no probation, or home detention, or work release. (which would put the cost of my sentence on me.)

Why use the Guidelines? Because numbers create an effective metric for judging the performances of prosecuting attorneys and for judges.

Unlike Indiana, the federal system does not permit 2 for 1 sentencing. It requires 86% of the sentence to be served. (Think about that if you want to keep playing with illegal images on the Internet.)

So, I am looking at a sentence longer than many drug offense, or bank robbery.  [Compare this with Indiana law at the time, I was looking at a longer sentence than that for reckless homicide. sch 12/7/22.] Why is that? Because I sent a morally reprehensible image over the internet - not for anything directly injuring another person.

I am not being treated all that differently from others in my situation. The government paints us all by numbers. They add to a base offense level for number of pictures, specific types of pictures, use of a computer, and deduct for no prior offenses and for cooperating with the government. Read the Dorvee case and it explains this. 

I believe Indiana gives a maximum of three years for the same kind of offense. Does this mean Hoosiers are more immoral than other Americans? I think not. 

So what do the people of the United States get by incarcerating a bunch of white, middle-aged, middle class types for approximately 151 months instead of 60 months? We will have to see, won't we?

sch

[Today, I would say with certainty they got little - my journal, this blog, my fiction. I can say what I got was a change in my life, time to read lots of books, do even more thinking, get back to church, and freedom. I did not plan on returning to Indiana, but the lungs did not give out as I thought they would. However, nothing I accomplished is attributable to the federal government other than their arrest of me. Considering that during my 2009 crime wave, I was trying rather hard to get caught, this was not much. If I had not been repulsed by where I ventured, if I were as pathological as supposed by the government, nothing would have changed, and their worries about my dangerousness would be well-founded. If had stuck with my original plans, all this would have been moot. What harm I avoided causing others rebounded to me. That I do not mind - I started it and I will finish it. However, I fully intend to do one thing: to do better. That is not a lesson taught me by the government, but one I taught myself. The only recourse left me, since I am still alive and have made such a public ass out of myself. sch 12/7/22.]