What is structured sentencing? What is the status of the federal structured sentencing model today?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Structured sentencing is one model of criminal punishment. Structured sentencing models include determinate sentencing, voluntary/advisory sentencing guidelines, and presumptive sentencing. Although each structured sentencing model has some advantages in better accomplishing proportionality, equity, and social debt when compared to indeterminate sentencing, these models are not without criticism, and there is little evidence to indicate that any of these models will be effective long-term crime-reduction strategies.

The federal structured sentencing model was adopted in 1984 with the passage of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act. In the 2005 combined cases of U.S. v. Booker and U.S. v. Fanfan, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the guidelines were merely advisory and gave federal judges wide latitude in imposing punishments. While federal judges must take the guidelines into consideration, they are no longer required to follow them.