Highlighting an era of federal sentencing with "hits" from the Federal Sentencing Reporter

The visionary work of founding editors Daniel J. Freed and Marc L. Miller launched the Federal Sentencing Reporter back in summer 1988 when the federal sentencing guidelines were just starting to be used in federal courts and when the very constitutionality of the Sentencing Reform Act coming under Supreme Court review.  Three dozen years later, the current FSR managing editors (Steve Chanenson and I) have wrapped up FSR's Volume 36 with a republishing of past FSR articles organized around a “greatest hits” theme in a super-sized issue titled "Four Decades of the Great American Sentencing Songbook." 

For both old and new followers of federal sentencing laws and practice, I am hopeful this collection can serve as an invogorating reminder of all the ideas and issues wrapped up in modern sentencing reform history.  And this issue also captures a transition moment in FSR history as Steve and I explain in our short introductory essay.  Here are excerpts from its start and end:

Sentencing is the soundtrack of the criminal law. Sometimes it garners all the attention, starting at the beginning of a criminal prosecution as lawyers and the general public consider what punishments are possible and likely based on alleged wrongdoing.  When other issues garner attention, sentencing concerns are always part of the backbeat — always humming in the minds of criminal justice actors, even if in the background — setting the atmosphere for action in and out of the courtroom.

With this issue closing out volume 36 of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, the managing editors are in the mood for reflection.  This reflective mood is inspired by a coming change in FSR operations.  Since its founding in 1988, the journal has been ably published by the University of California Press, primarily in partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice.  Now, starting with the next volume, FSR will have a new publisher as part of a new arrangement with The Ohio State University, which stepped into Vera’s shoes at the start of this calendar year.  Like all transitions, this presents an opportunity for taking stock.

This issue of FSR looks back — incompletely, by necessity — at the transformative decades of federal sentencing after the Sentencing Reform Act and three dozen years of FSR reporting on the broader landscape of sentencing and punishment....

We have organized the reprinted pieces that follow around a kind of FSR’s "greatest hits" theme, in part to connote and acknowledge that a wide range of people, seen and unseen, have contributed in myriad ways to the long-running Federal Sentencing Reporter band.  As the first reprinted pieces highlight, our show got off to an extraordinary start thanks to the visionary work of founding editors Daniel J. Freed and Marc L. Miller.  For more than a third of a century, our exceptional contributors have kept the FSR beat alive, and we are confident the journal will continue to thrive for decades to come.  We hope you enjoy this push of the replay button for the final FSR issue published by the wonderful producers of this sentencing experience at the University of California Press.