United States Sentencing Commission, Fifteen Years of Guidelines Sentencing: An
Assessment of How Well the Federal Criminal Justice System is Achieving the Goals of
Sentencing Reform, 2004.

Available at: http://www.ussc.gov/15_year/15year.htm

“73.7 percent of district court judges and 82.7 percent of circuit court judges
[rate] drug punishments as greater than appropriate to reflect the seriousness
of drug trafficking offenses.” Id. at 52.

The Sentencing Project, The Federal Prison Population: A Statistical Analysis.

Available at: http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/federalprison.pdf

“From 1992-2002, the average time served in prison for a drug offense
increased by 31% from 32.7 months to 42.9 months.” Id. at 2.

Amy Baron-Evans, Sentencing Resource Counsel, Enforcing the New Sentencing Law:
Advanced Federal Criminal Appellate Practice Seminar, March 2006.
“Incarceration has little effect on reducing drug crime because drug crime is
driven by demand, and low-level dealers and couriers are easily replaced.”
Id.at 10.

“A majority of judges responding to a 2002 survey urged greater availability
of probation with confinement conditions, especially for drug offenders.” Id.
at 11-12 (citing the Fifteen Year Report at 44-45.)

“Of all federal offenders, drug offenders are the least likely to recidivate.
Tying punishment to mandatory minimum quantities, enhanced by the
guidelines, sweeps in low-level offenders and punishes them as harshly as
kingpins. This misdirects law enforcement resources from the kingpins and
traffickers Congress had in mind.” Id.at 14.

“A typical male drug offender is twice as likely as a female to be sentenced
to prison, sentence length is 25-30% longer for men in all types of cases,
women get larger downward departures, and are more likely to get an
alternative sentencing option. This may be warranted by lesser involvement
by women, greater family responsibilities and greater separation from their
families caused by the relative scarcity of prisons for women, or it may be
unwarranted disparity driven by paternalism or an incorrect assumption that
men do not have family responsibilities.” Id.at 24.