INTRODUCTION:

Across the country, governors, legislators and corrections officials are trying to manage correctional systems that seem out of control. Prisons are overcrowded, incarceration rates in most jurisdictions are climbing, and state and local corrections budgets are swallowing more and more dollars. Sentencing practices have come under increasing attack for being inequitable and inconsistent, and for making inefficient use of limited correctional resources. While the situation in Alaska has not yet reached the crisis stage that it has in other states, serious problems must be anticipated if current trends continue.

In response to mounting policy and budgetary concerns, legislatures across the country have recently appointed sentencing commissions to consider a structured approach to reform. The Alaska Sentencing Commission was established by the legislature in 1990 at the urging of a task force headed by the Commissioner of Corrections that included the Attorney General, the Judicial Council and representatives form the Alaska State House and Senate. While an important impetus for the commission was prison overcrowding, the legislature also emphasized the need to evaluate the effects of sentencing laws and practices. This report contains the commission's preliminary response to those concerns and its plans to address them over the next two and a half years.

Information about the resource can be found at:
ANKN Clearinghouse
P.O. Box 756730
Fairbanks, AK 99775-6730

Tel: (907) 474-5897
or email: ANKN Clearinghouse

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