U.S. Sentencing Commission Publishes Letter from Clemency Clinic Director Professor JaneAnne Murray and Clemency Students

The United States Sentencing Commission posted a selection of the public comments it received on proposed priorities for the upcoming amendment cycle.  These included the comments submitted by Prof. JaneAnne Murray, director of the Clemency Project Clinic, and clemency students, Sam Buisman ’25, Annemarie Foy ’26, and Emily Westover ’26. They proposed that the Commission study the criminal and penal systems of some foreign countries with low incarceration rates to identify strategies and practices that could be adapted to reduce incarceration and improve justice outcomes in the United States. They noted that their recommendation is especially timely in light of the severe challenges the BOP currently faces in terms of overcrowding, understaffing, and strained resources. The proposal was inspired by the Clinic’s visits over the past three years to Norway, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, where Murray and students visited prisons, courts, nonprofits, and prosecution and defense offices. The letter addressed several aspects of the systems they visited, including their significantly lower recidivism rates despite shorter sentences; the focus on making prison life inside resemble life outside as much as possible (the "normality principle"); the creation of “therapeutic communities” for violent offenders to promote their reintegration to society; unique approaches to restorative justice; more humane treatment of female offenders; and the general repudiation of solitary confinement except in the most limited and short-lived of circumstances.