The United States Sentencing Commission (“the Commission”) was created by the Sentencing Reform Act provisions of the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The Commission is an independent agency in the Judicial Branch of the federal government, with statutory duties that include:
- establishing and amending sentencing guidelines to be considered by sentencing judges in all federal criminal cases;
- collecting, analyzing, and reporting sentencing data systematically to detect new criminal trends, assess federal sentencing policies, and serve as a clearinghouse for federal sentencing statistics;
- conducting research on sentencing issues and serving as an information center for the collection, preparation, and dissemination of information on federal sentencing practices; and
- providing specialized training to judges, probation officers, staff attorneys, law clerks, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other members of the federal criminal justice community on application of the federal sentencing guidelines and federal sentencing matters.