Opinion ID: 519520
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The prison population

Text: 19 In formulating the guidelines the Commission was directed by Congress to consider the nature and capacity of federal correctional facilities and to formulate the guidelines so as to minimize the likelihood that the federal prison population will exceed the capacity of the federal prisons.... 28 U.S.C. Sec. 994(g). The appellants argue that the guidelines will significantly increase the prison population in violation of this directive. The directive, however, was not a prohibition upon any increase in the federal prison population but, by its clear wording, a directive only that the Commission consider the effects of such an increase. The Commission is also directed by the same provision to recommend any change or expansion in the nature or capacity of such facilities and services that might become necessary as a result of the guidelines.... Id. (emphasis supplied). Congress clearly envisioned that properly confected guidelines might increase the prison population. 20 [T]he purpose of the requirement [that the Commission take the capacity of the prison system into account] is to assure that the available capacity of the facilities and services is kept in mind when the guidelines are promulgated. It is not intended, however, to limit the Sentencing Commission in recommending guidelines that it believes will best serve the purposes of sentencing. Instead, it is intended that the Commission be aware of the system's capacity in order to assure that it is not inadvertently exceeded, and that the Commission make recommendations as to any changes in that capacity that it believes to be necessary in light of its sentencing guidelines. 21 S.Rep. No. 225, 98th Cong., 2nd Sess. 175, reprinted in 1984 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News 3182, 3358. The Commission extensively studied the effect of the proposed guidelines upon the prison population and concluded that, compared to the effects that tougher drug laws and the expected increases in the general population would produce, the increase from the guidelines was not prohibitive. See Supplementary Report on the Initial Sentencing Guidelines and Policy Statements 62-75, June 18, 1987. 22