Second Look Sentencing: A (Running) Reading List for Legislators, Staff, Advocates, and Everyone Else

The idea of “Second Look” sentencing — that the law should allow some mechanism by which institutional actors can legally revisit sentences to ensure they remain appropriate (or to adjust those that never were) — has been around for some time. Now, it is gaining traction. For example, the Model Penal Code now contains a second look provision; last year, a second look bill was filed in the Florida Legislature, and passed several committees (the bill was recently re-filed for the 2021 session); a second look bill looks poised to pass in Washington, D.C. any day now; the new District Attorney for Los Angeles County, George Gascón, announced his office will create a “resentencing unit” tasked with conducting second look-style reviews in thousands of cases; earlier this year, Broward County, Florida State Attorney Michael Satz announced what he called an “equitable review” process that led to the early release of drug offenders serving sentences no longer found in law; and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers just released model second look legislation, a fantastic aid for legislators interested in adopting second look laws in their states.

Given the momentum second-look sentencing seems to have at the moment — and the fact that adopting such laws is a moral necessity given the way current sentencing structures deny thousands of our fellow human beings their liberty unnecessarily — I thought it might be useful to put together a list of materials — law review articles, opinion pieces, blog posts, panels, etc. — that legislators, staff, advocates, and laypeople could use for a better understanding of some of the theoretical and moral issues surrounding second look sentencing, how it would work in practice, why it would protect and even improve public safety outcomes, and so on.

(NOTE: As the title of this post suggests, this is intended as a running list. As of 12/10/2020, the list includes only items I could recall off the top of my head. Also, with the exception of putting FAMM’s stuff right at the top — where it belongs — the only order below is when I thought of it. If you think something should be added, email me at gnewburn@famm.org!)

1. FAMM’s Second Look Infographic
2. Kevin Sharp and Kevin Ring, “Judges should be able to take a ‘second look’ at prison sentencing,” USA Today, June 20, 2019.
3. Shon Hopwood, “Second Looks and Second Chances,” 41 Cardozo L. Rev. 83 (2019).
4. Daniel Landsman, “A Second Chance Starts with a Second Look: The Case for Reconsideration of Lengthy Prison Sentences.”
5. Marilyn Mosby (state’s attorney, Baltimore City, Maryland) and George Gascón (district attorney, Los Angeles County), “Resentencing Units can Rectify, Rehabilitate, and Restore,” The Appeal, December 8, 2020.
6. Independent Task Force on Federal Priorities. Next Steps: An Agenda for Federal Action on Safety & Justice. Washington, D.C.: Council on Criminal Justice, May 2020.
7. Brennan Center for Justice, “A Federal Agenda for Criminal Justice Reform,” December 2020.
8. “Sentencing Second Chances: Addressing Excessive Sentencing with Escape Valves,” — an excellent panel at the 2019 “Rewriting the Sentence” conference at Columbia Law School.
9. Doug Berman, “Encouraging (and Even Requiring) Prosecutors to Be Second-Look Sentencers,” 19 Temple Political & Civil Rights L. Rev. 429 (2010).
10. ABA Roundtable on “Second Look” Sentencing Reforms, Federal Sentencing Reporter Vol. 21, №. 3, February 2009.
11. Cecelia Klingele, “Changing the Sentence without Hiding the Truth: Judicial Sentence Modification as a Promising Method of Early Release,” 52 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 465 (2010).
12. Margaret Colgate Love, “Sentence Reduction Mechanisms in a Determinate Sentencing System: Report of the Second Look Roundtable,” Federal Sentencing Reporter Vol. 21, №. 3, February 2009.
13. Meghan J. Ryan, “Taking Another Look at Second-Look Sentencing,” 81 Brooklyn Law Review 149 (2015).
14. Richard Frase, “Second Look Provisions in the Proposed Model Penal Code Revisions,” 21 FED. SENTENCING R. 194 (2009).
15. Doug Berman, “Re-Balancing Fitness, Fairness, and Finality for Sentences,” Berman, Douglas A., Re-Balancing Fitness, Fairness, and Finality for Sentences (May 2, 2014). Ohio State Public Law Working Paper №243 (2014).
16. Michael Serota, “Second Looks & Criminal Legislation,” 17 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 496 (2019).
17. Michael Serota, “Taking a Second Look at (In)Justice.”
18. M. Eve Hanan, “Incapacitating Errors: Sentencing and the Science of Change,” 97 Denv. L. Rev. 151 (2019).
19. Sarah French Russell, “Second Looks at Sentences under the First Step Act,” Federal Sentencing Reporter (2019) 32 (2): 76–85 (2019). (Gated.)
20. Michael Tonry, “Remodeling American Sentencing: A Ten-Step Blueprint for Moving Past Mass Incarceration,” Criminology and Public Policy, 13(4), 503–533 (2014).
21. Michael Tonry, “Making American Sentencing Just, Humane, and Effective,” Crime and Justice, 2017, Vol.46(1).
22. Michael Santos, “Incentivizing Excellence: A Suggestion for Merit-Based Reductions from a Twenty-Six-Year Federal Prison Insider,” 66 Hastings L.J. 1549 (2015).
23. Steven Zeidman, “For Justice and Decarceration, Enact Second-Look Sentencing,” Gotham Gazette, June 26, 2018.
24. Model Penal Code “Second Look” provision
25. NACDL Model “Second Look” legislation white paper; and model bill.
26. The first prize winner of the Ohio “Second Look” Statute Drafting Competition, sponsored by the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center in collaboration with the Ohio Justice & Policy Center. (Very cool project!)
27. Frank O. Bowman III, “Freeing Morgan Freeman: Expanding Back-End Release Authority in American Prisons,” 4 WAKE FOREST · J.L. & POL’Y 9 (2014).
28. Colorado Legislative Council Staff, Second Look Sentencing Memorandum (2017).
29. Steven P. Grossman & Stephen J. Shapiro, “Judicial Modification of Sentences in Maryland,” University of Baltimore Law Review: Vol. 33 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. (2003).
30. Meghan J. Ryan, “Finality and Rehabilitation,” 4 Wake Forest J. L. & Pol’y 121 (2014).