Experimenting with a new tool for commentary about sentencing matters
This is a new substack designed to be a new space for commentary about sentencing matters by a set of sentencing-interested academics.
I already have a blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, where I have been writing about sentencing matters for over two decades(!). But in that space, I do a lot of posts that I might label “reporting” focused around sentencing news and cases and scholarship. In many of these “reporting” posts, I will sprinkle in some original commentary here and there. But in these kinds of posts, which make up the bulk of my blogging, my chief contribution is in the curating of recent sentencing developments and platforming a wide array of sentencing-related content.
I always hope to make time for longer commentary posts at SL&P, especially when some recent sentencing development or debate gets me thinking in new ways. For a few recent examples of “meatier” SL&P posts, check out:
“Puzzling through the reach and application of the Eighth Amendment inspired by SCOTUS argument in Grants Pass case”
“USSC hearings on acquitted conduct: the devilish details amid a fundamental criminal process debate”
But, in part because even my “reporting” posts are engaging and time-consuming (and certainly because of a range of other commitment), I feel I rarely make as much time as I would like for more and longer commentary posts at SL&P. And, upon seeing a number of friends and colleagues use Substack for effective original commentary, I started to get a hankering for trying out this medium as one new way to prompt myself to make more time for more longer-form sentencing commentary.
As this idea germinated, a new catalyst for growth emerged: Jonathan Wroblewski, who had served for many years as the Director of the Office of Policy and Legislation in the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice and also as DOJ’s ex officio respresententative on the US Sentencing Commission, told me he was working on a series of commentary pieces that he was hoping to have posted on Sentencing Law and Policy. I said I would be honored to place these pieces on SL&P, but I added that I would be even more excited to start a sentencing Substack as a place for both of us (and perhaps others) to share all sorts of sentencing talk about all sorts of sentencing matters.
In addition, my long-time co-managing editor with the Federal Sentencing Reporter, Steven Chanenson, agreed to be another stacker(?) on this new Substack. Among an array of virtues and contributions, Steve suggested the titled title “Sentencing Matters” for this effort and also got a blessing to use that great title from another legendary sentencing academic who came up with it first.
So, with that introduction, I am hopeful readers will come to find coming commentraries in this space even more inspiring than this origin story.