Soros Justice Fellowships

Scholar

Federal sentencing guidelines are supposed to reduce unwarranted disparities and establish fair and effective sentencing practices in the federal courts. However, since the mid-1980s, the average time served in federal prisons has doubled; the population of federal prisons has more than quintupled; over half of the incarcerated population is made up of drug offenders; and the sentencing gap between African-Americans and whites has widened dramatically.

Paul Hofer will review and document the critical steps in the unraveling of federal sentencing reform. Resulting in a series of articles written for general consumption in popular magazines as well as for professional audiences, Hofer's project aims to spark discussion and debate by policymakers and advocates, bringing about improvements in the federal sentencing system.

Hofer received his BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, his JD from the University of Maryland School of Law, and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. He has taught courses at Johns Hopkins on law, psychology, and public policy. In 1986 he joined the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C., working closely with the Criminal Law Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. In 1995 Hofer worked as Special Projects Director at the United States Sentencing Commission. He has worked on numerous government reports, law review articles, and other scholarly publications, including Fifteen Years of Guidelines Sentencing.

Washington, DC |