Food for sentencing thought

Two recent sentencing-related items from major papers provide lots of interesting food for thought:

• Adam Liptak at the New York Times has this fascinating article explaining why it "is increasingly expensive to be a criminal."  The piece explaining that "[a]lmost every encounter with the criminal justice system these days can give rise to a fee."  (Hat tip: TalkLeft.)

• Over at the Washington Post, Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback proves yet again that he may be the leading progressive on sentencing issues in the US Congress though this letter to the editor.  Promoting his bill called the Second Chance Act, Brownback closes his letter with this sentiment: "We should not be resigned to allowing generation after generation to return to prison because they don't have the tools to break the cycle.  The Second Chance Act could help stop this pernicious cycle."