18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)’s Undervalued Sentencing Command: Providing a Federal Criminal Defendant with Rehabilitation, Training, and Treatment in “the Most Effective Manner”

Authors

Erica Zunkel, The University of Chicago Law School

Abstract

The vast majority of federal criminal defendants are sentenced to prison, and non-incarceration sentences have become vanishingly small. During the sentencing process, federal district court judges are required to consider what sentence will provide the defendant with necessary rehabilitation and treatment in the most effective manner pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2)(d). Courts regularly undervalue, ignore, or even violate this statutory command. Some courts seem to believe that the Bureau of Prisons can provide adequate rehabilitation and treatment and do not explain how this squares with what the statute requires. Other courts barely engage with the issue. Only a minority of courts take the statutory command seriously. This is problematic because evidence shows that the Bureau of Prisons is ill-equipped to provide defendants with the most effective rehabilitation and treatment, particularly medical care and mental health care. This Article concludes that the courts should take § 3553(a)(2)(D)’s mandate much more seriously in sentencing federal criminal defendants. Likewise, defense attorneys should engage in vigorous advocacy at sentencing to ensure that courts understand the Bureau of Prisons’ severe limitations in providing effective, let alone adequate, rehabilitation and treatment.

Recommended Citation

Zunkel, Erica (2019) "18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)’s Undervalued Sentencing Command: Providing a Federal Criminal Defendant with Rehabilitation, Training, and Treatment in “the Most Effective Manner”," Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjicl/vol9/iss1/5