CARLA CROWDER
News staff writer

MONTGOMERY - The Alabama Sentencing Commission on Friday approved a new sentencing structure for judges that could help reduce wide disparities in criminal sentences and bring more equality to the court system.

The guidelines narrow the current broad range of possible sentence lengths. One to 10 years, for example, for certain drug felonies would be tightened to a range of 13 to 65 months. The sentencing standards direct judges to consider both the seriousness of the current offense, as well as an offender's prior misdemeanor and felony convictions, previous incarceration and juvenile delinquency. The standards are voluntary for judges.

"It is not a radical departure from what we're doing, but it is a departure," said retired circuit judge Joseph Colquitt, chairman of the Sentencing Commission

The standards drop minimum possible sentence ranges for drug crimes by 30 percent, and minimum sentences for property crimes by 20 percent. Sentence lengths for personal crimes such as murder, rape and robbery remain about the same, said Chief Assistant Attorney General Rosa Davis, who led the commission in developing the standards.

Sentencing experts studied 14,000 criminals sentenced over five years to develop the standards. Davis lauded the standards for "trying to bring equality and trying to bring sense," to Alabama's criminal code.

She credited the Vera Institute of Justice, impartial experts in structured sentencing and sentencing reform, for assisting Alabama's efforts.

The standards, known as sentencing guidelines in most states and within the federal court system, provide worksheets and a point system which help judges base sentences on what's happened historically in Alabama with similar cases.

The standards are the centerpiece of the package of proposals to be given to the Legislature this year by the Sentencing Commission, which was established in 2000 to help reduce prison crowding and sentencing disparities and bring truth-in-sentencing. If lawmakers approve the standards, they would be adopted in October.

For one member of the commission, the proposal does not go far enough to reduce disparities in the criminal justice system, and reform Alabama's historically tough sentences that have more than quadrupled the prison population in 25 years.

"When I came on this commission, I thought we were really going to make an impact and start doing the right thing," said Jefferson County District Court Judge Pete Johnson.

Instead, "We're sentencing people too long for offenses that are not serious, and using that history to guide what we're going to do. And it's bad history," he said.

Johnson runs Jefferson County's drug court, which tries to get drug offenders into treatment and rehabilitation and not just lock them in prison.

"They've made it better," he said of the standards. "But you could have a case where someone embezzled $200,000 and has some prior criminal history and would not go to prison, and then you could have someone who's charged with (having) one Valium and because they were foolish 20 years ago picked up three prior felonies and two misdemeanors and it's mandatory prison under these guidelines," Johnson said.

Another judge on the commission, P.B. McLauchlin, presiding circuit judge in Dale and Geneva counties, pointed out that the proposed bottom range is lower than what judges historically have done.

Besides, "The public's got to buy into it," McLauchlin said. "We've got to have a sentence that's credible."

Residents will lose faith in the system if they see a criminal with several prior felonies who broke into their home in line at the grocery store, he said.

Davis said sentencing experts who developed the standards believe they will apply to about 75 percent of the sentences. She stressed that they are voluntary for judges, and preserve a hefty amount of judicial discretion.

That didn't satisfy Johnson.

"In our political situation in this state, there will still be judges who will feel compelled within the range to give the maximum, and it won't be the right thing to do," Johnson said. "They love to play on the fear of the public."

He resigned from the commission after Friday's meeting.

"I haven't been very effective in convincing people to follow what I think," Johnson said after resigning.

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