2012 is Off with a Bang!

The FAMM staff is back in the office, and we hope you had a great holiday season.

And 2012 is already off with a bang.  Today's news roundup is full of all kinds of sentencing goodies:

• The Crime Report has a useful analysis of recent drops in state prison populations around the country and offers New York, New Jersey, and Michigan (the latter two where FAMM won significant victories) as examples of states combating prison population growth effectively through reforms.
• This excellent article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette looks at the dangers of mandatory minimums and the power prosecutors have to use (and abuse) them during plea bargaining.  It's part of a bigger, interesting series on the consequences of a drug bust.
• This Washington Post editorial celebrates the low crime rates the U.S. is currently enjoying and concludes with what any sentencing nerd can tell you:  we still don't really know why.
• And 2012 could see movement on new state sentencing reforms:  Georgia is considering alternatives to incarceration, and Oregon's Commission on Public Safety is urging more research so that it can propose smart-on-crime sentencing reforms to keep the state's prison population from growing.
• The Christian Science Monitor has this thoughtful piece titled "Four Ways to Relieve Overcrowded Prisons."
• This interesting story from The Daily Caller is a warning and a reminder: just because you have a gun carrying permit in one state doesn't mean you can't be charged with a gun crime -- and face a mandatory sentence for it -- in another state.

We'll keep the fascinating sentencing news coming here on the blog, all throughout 2012!

Happy New Year!