PRISON-RELEASE DISCRETION AND PRISON POPULATION SIZE - REPORT: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

ii PRISON-RELEASE DISCRETION AND PRISON POPULATION SIZE STATE REPORT: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Note on the project’s rankings of “degrees of indeterminacy” To compare the degrees of indeterminacy in individual prison sentences or across the prison-sentencing systems of different jurisdictions, we use a qualitative ranking framework based on our cumulative learning while preparing the project’s 52 juri. [...] If all prisoners in this group were made to serve their longest possible terms, the size of the “Figure 3 subgroup” of the prison population would eventually be 50 percent larger than if all members of the subgroup were released after the shortest possible amount of time served. [...] When deciding whether to reduce the original sentence, the court will consider factors such as the age at the time of the offense, history and characteristics of the offender, any recommendation from the 20 Id. [...] Aggravating circumstances include the victim being under age 12, the victim being under age 18 and having a significant relationship with the offender, the victim receiving serious bodily injury, the offender having a history of committing sex offenses, or the offender being armed at the time of the offense. [...] As a consequence, the dominant back-end agency with release discretion is the Bureau of Prisons, exercised at the prison level by corrections officials who administer the award and forfeiture of good-time and program credits.40 For the great majority of prisoners, the BOP’s prison-release powers are not shared or offset by any other agency.