From Sickness to Cure: Obeying 28 U.S.C. § 994(g)’s Mandates as a Remedy to Bureau of Prison Overpopulation

Abstract This article explains how the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s excessively punitive, weight-based drug-trafficking guideline has played a key role in exploding prison populations, contributing to the federal Bureau of Prisons’ present staffing and facilities crises. The article explains how a less frequently relied-upon provision of the code, 28 U.S.C. § 994(g), requires that the Commission formulate the Sentencing Guidelines to avoid such overcrowding and argues for the Commission to act boldly to reduce the lengths of drug sentences. The article then identifies several broad changes to the drug-trafficking guidelines that the Commission can make to lessen the Bureau of Prisons population in a manner consistent with the § 994(g) mandate.