Sentencing Guidelines for the United States Courts, 44973-44974 [2014-18147]

Agencies

• United States Sentencing Commission

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 148 (Friday, August 1, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44973-44974]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-18147]


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UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION


Sentencing Guidelines for the United States Courts

AGENCY: United States Sentencing Commission.

ACTION: Notice of final action regarding amendment to Policy Statement 
Sec.  1B1.10, effective November 1, 2014.

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SUMMARY: The Sentencing Commission hereby gives notice of an amendment 
to a policy statement and commentary made pursuant to its authority 
under 28 U.S.C. 994(a) and (u). The Commission promulgated an amendment 
to Policy Statement Sec.  1B1.10 (Reduction in Term of Imprisonment as 
a Result of Amended Guideline Range) clarifying when, and to what 
extent, a sentencing reduction is considered consistent with the policy 
statement and therefore authorized under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2). The 
amendment expands the listing in Sec.  1B1.10(d) (as redesignated by 
Amendment 1 of the amendments submitted to Congress on April 30, 2014) 
to include Amendment 782 (Amendment 3 of the amendments submitted to 
Congress on April 30, 2014) as an amendment that may be available for 
retroactive application. The amendment also inserts a new subsection 
(e) to the policy statement with a special instruction requiring that 
any order granting sentence reductions based on Amendment 782 shall not 
take effect until November 1, 2015, or later, and adds a new 
application note to Sec.  1B1.10 to explain and clarify this special 
instruction.

DATES: The effective date of this amendment is November 1, 2014. 
However, as a result of the special instruction, offenders cannot be 
released from custody pursuant to retroactive application of Amendment 
782 before November 1, 2015.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeanne Doherty, Public Affairs 
Officer, 202-502-4502, jdoherty@ussc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The United States Sentencing Commission is 
an independent agency in the judicial branch of the United States 
Government. The Commission promulgates sentencing guidelines and policy 
statements for federal sentencing courts pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 994(a). 
The Commission also periodically reviews and revises previously 
promulgated guidelines pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 994(o), and specifies in 
what circumstances and by what amount sentences of imprisonment may be 
reduced if the Commission reduces the term of imprisonment recommended 
in the guidelines applicable to a particular offense or category of 
offenses pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 994(u).
    The amendment to Policy Statement Sec.  1B1.10 set forth in this 
notice and the text of the amendments submitted to Congress on April 
30, 2014 (published in 79 FR 25996 (May 6, 2014)) are also available on 
the Commission's Web site at www.ussc.gov.

    Authority:  28 U.S.C. 994(a), (u).

Patti B. Saris,
Chair.
    1. Amendment: Section 1B1.10, as amended by Amendment 780 
(Amendment 1 of the amendments submitted to Congress on April 30, 2014, 
79 FR 25996 (May 6, 2014)), is further amended in subsection (d) by 
striking ``and'' and by inserting ``, and 782 (subject to subsection 
(e)(1))'' before the period at the end;
    and by adding at the end the following new subsection (e):
    ``(e) Special Instruction.--
    (1) The court shall not order a reduced term of imprisonment based 
on Amendment 782 unless the effective date of the court's order is 
November 1, 2015, or later.''.
    The Commentary to Sec.  1B1.10 captioned ``Application Notes'', as 
amended by Amendment 780 (Amendment 1 of the amendments submitted to 
Congress on April 30, 2014, 79 FR 25996 (May 6, 2014)), is further 
amended by redesignating Notes 6 and 7 as Notes 7 and 8, respectively;
    and by inserting after Note 5 the following new Note 6:
    ``6. Application to Amendment 782.--As specified in subsection (d) 
and (e)(1), Amendment 782 (generally revising the Drug Quantity Table 
and chemical quantity tables across drug and chemical types) is covered 
by this policy statement only in cases in which the order reducing the 
defendant's term of imprisonment has an effective date of November 1, 
2015, or later.
    A reduction based on retroactive application of Amendment 782 that 
does not comply with the requirement that the order take effect on 
November 1, 2015, or later is not consistent with this policy statement 
and therefore is not authorized under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2).
    Subsection (e)(1) does not preclude the court from conducting 
sentence reduction proceedings and entering orders under 18 U.S.C. 
3582(c)(2) and this policy statement before November 1, 2015, provided 
that any order reducing the defendant's term of imprisonment has an 
effective date of November 1, 2015, or later.''.
    Reason for Amendment: This amendment expands the listing in Sec.  
1B1.10(d) to implement the directive in 28 U.S.C. 994(u) with respect 
to guideline amendments that may be considered for retroactive 
application. The Commission has determined that Amendment 782, subject 
to the limitation in new Sec.  1B1.10(e) delaying the effective date of 
sentence reduction orders until November 1, 2015, should be applied 
retroactively.
    Amendment 782 reduced by two levels the offense levels assigned to 
the quantities that trigger the statutory mandatory minimum penalties 
in Sec.  2D1.1, and made parallel changes to Sec.  2D1.11. Under the 
applicable standards set forth in the background commentary to Sec.  
1B1.10, the Commission considers the following factors, among others: 
(1) The purpose of the amendment, (2) the magnitude of the change in 
the guideline range made by the amendment, and (3) the difficulty of 
applying the amendment retroactively. See Sec.  1B1.10, comment. 
(backg'd.). Applying those standards to

[[Page 44974]]

Amendment 782, the Commission determined that, among other factors:
    (1) The purposes of the amendment are to reflect the Commission's 
determination that setting the base offense levels above mandatory 
minimum penalties is no longer necessary and that a reduction would be 
an appropriate step toward alleviating the overcapacity of the federal 
prisons. See 28 U.S.C. 994(g) (requiring the Commission to formulate 
guidelines to ``minimize the likelihood that the Federal prison 
population will exceed the capacity of the Federal prisons'').
    (2) The number of cases potentially involved is large, and the 
magnitude of the change in the guideline range is significant. The 
Commission determined that an estimated 46,000 offenders may benefit 
from retroactive application of Amendment 782 subject to the limitation 
in Sec.  1B1.10(e), and the average sentence reduction would be 
approximately 18 percent.
    (3) The administrative burdens of applying Amendment 782 
retroactively are significant but manageable given the one-year delay 
in the effective date, which allows courts and agencies more time to 
prepare. This determination was informed by testimony at the 
Commission's June 10, 2014 public hearing on retroactivity and by other 
public comment received by the Commission.
    The Commission determined that public safety, among other factors, 
requires a limitation on retroactive application of Amendment 782. In 
light of the large number of cases potentially involved, the Commission 
determined that the agencies of the federal criminal justice system 
responsible for the offenders' reentry into society need time to 
prepare, and to help the offenders prepare, for that reentry. For 
example, the Bureau of Prisons has the responsibility under 18 U.S.C. 
3624(c) to ensure, to the extent practicable, that the defendant will 
spend a portion of his or her term of imprisonment under conditions 
that will afford the defendant a reasonable opportunity to adjust to 
and prepare for his or her reentry into the community. The Commission 
received testimony indicating that some offenders released pursuant to 
earlier retroactive guideline amendments had been released without 
having had this opportunity. In addition, for many of the defendants 
potentially involved, their sentence includes a term of supervised 
release after imprisonment. The judiciary and its probation officers 
will have the responsibility under 18 U.S.C. 3624(e) to supervise those 
defendants when they are released by the Bureau of Prisons. The 
Commission received testimony from the Criminal Law Committee of the 
Judicial Conference of the United States that a delay would permit 
courts and probation offices to prepare to effectively supervise this 
increased number of defendants.
    The Commission concluded that a one-year delay in the effective 
date of any orders granting sentence reductions under Amendment 782 is 
needed (1) to give courts adequate time to obtain and review the 
information necessary to make an individualized determination in each 
case of whether a sentence reduction is appropriate, (2) to ensure 
that, to the extent practicable, all offenders who are to be released 
have the opportunity to participate in reentry programs and 
transitional services, such as placement in halfway houses, while still 
in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, which increases their 
likelihood of successful reentry to society and thereby promotes public 
safety, and (3) to permit those agencies that will be responsible for 
offenders after their release to prepare for the increased 
responsibility. Therefore, the Commission added a Special Instruction 
at subsection (e) providing that a reduced term of imprisonment based 
on retroactive application of Amendment 782 shall not be ordered unless 
the effective date of the court's order is November 1, 2015, or later. 
An application note clarifies that this special instruction does not 
preclude the court from conducting sentence reduction proceedings 
before November 1, 2015, as long as any order reducing the defendant's 
term of imprisonment has an effective date of November 1, 2015, or 
later. As a result, offenders cannot be released from custody pursuant 
to retroactive application of Amendment 782 before November 1, 2015.
    In addition, public safety will be considered in every case because 
Sec.  1B1.10 requires the court, in determining whether and to what 
extent a reduction in the defendant's term of imprisonment is 
warranted, to consider the nature and seriousness of the danger to any 
person or the community that may be posed by such a reduction. See 
Sec.  1B1.10, comment. (n.1(B)(ii)).

[FR Doc. 2014-18147 Filed 7-31-14; 8:45 am]
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