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64 U. Colo. L. Rev. 645 (1993)
Sentencing Reform in the States: An Overview of the Colorado Law Review Symposium

handle is hein.journals/ucollr64 and id is 675 raw text is: UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO LAW REVIEW Volume 64, Number 3 1993 SENTENCING REFORM IN THE STATES: AN OVERVIEW OF THE COLORADO LAW REVIEW SYMPOSIUM KEvIN R. REITZ* INTRODUCTION: WHY STATE SENTENCING? The 1993 Colorado Law Review Symposium was organized around one idea: There is a need for increased attention, at the policymaking level, in the judiciary, at the bar, and especially in academia, concerning issues of sentencing reform at the state level. Ironically, this observation comes at a time when the federal sentencing guidelines have been generating great controversy and an enormous literature.' Looking only to the federal sphere, we might conclude that the long-neglected subject of sentencing policy has, in the last few years, been receiving adequate discussion. At the same time, however, we would be disappointed to find relatively few evaluative studies, or legal or policy analyses, of the many sentencing reform efforts in state jurisdictions.2 Without deprecat- * Associate Professor, University of Colorado School of Law; Co-Reporter, ABA Criminal Justice Standards for Sentencing, 1989-93. I. Recent law review symposia devoted to the federal sentencing guidelines include Symposium on Federal Sentencing, 66 S. CAL. L. REv. 99 (1992); Symposium, Punishment, 101 YALE L.J. 1681 (1992); Symposium, Making Sense of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, 25 U.C. DAvis L. REv. 563 (1992); Federal Sentencing Guidelines Symposium, 29 AM. Csmw. L. REv. 771 (1992). For a sampling of other scholarship in the federal domain, see infra note 3. 2. 1 do not mean to slight the good efforts of a handful of individuals, many of whom have accepted invitations to be a part of this symposium. Still, there is wide agreement that the total volume of literature devoted to state sentencing systems is unhappily small and that important evaluative studies, needed in many jurisdictions, have been left undone. See, e.g., Kay A. Knapp, Allocation of Discretion and Accountability Within Sentencing Structures, 64 U. CoLo. L. REv. 679, 679 (1993) (academics have focused almost all of their attention on the federal sentencing guidelines); Ronald F. Wright & Susan P. Ellis,

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