Legislature

• is proud to announce that eight of its attorneys have been selected to the 2024 New Jersey Super Lawyers and Rising Stars lists.
• She has been selected to the Super Lawyers list each year since 2021.
• She has been selected to the Rising Stars list each year since 2019.
• Mr. Marcy was selected to the Super Lawyers list from 2006 to 2009 and each year since 2017.

• One in three caregivers say they care or cared for someone with a decline in mental functioning, such as Alzheimer or dementia.
• "Our survey shines a spotlight on an issue that many New Yorkers are living every day as family caregivers," said AARP New York State Director Beth Finkel.
• "Across New York State, family caregivers are juggling jobs while raising their children and providing essential help to an aging loved one.
• Nearly 70% of caregivers say they cared for their loved ones while also being employed either full- or part-time.

• Pennsylvania’s new sentencing guidelines went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
• They mark the eighth iteration since the state first introduced such guidelines in 1982 and are perhaps the most comprehensive revision to date.
• Since Philadelphia has by far the largest share of incarcerated people in the state, the new sentencing guidelines affect many Philadelphia residents.

How do judges determine a person’s sentence?

• This means that judges are required to consider what the state guidelines suggest a criminal sentence should be, but they are not required to comply with the guidelines.
• That’s different from other states such as Minnesota and Oregon that have mandatory sentencing guidelines.
• In Pennsylvania, judges primarily consider what crime the person is charged with along with their prior record or criminal history.

What’s new in the 2024 sentencing guidelines?

• Probably the most significant change is re-weighting the two categories in the matrix — offense severity and criminal history.
• These categories are officially known as the Offense Gravity Score and the Prior Record Score.
• Lapsing policies, for example, have been expanded to reduce the impact of criminal history on sentencing for less serious offenders.

What’s the goal of the new guidelines?

• The guidelines themselves were created by the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing with the the goal of promoting fair and uniform decisions on the severity of people’s punishment.
• These commission members provide direction and oversight and are unique from commission staff, who collect, analyze and monitor the sentencing data for the state.

What’s been the reaction so far?

• The new guidelines mirror the federal sentencing guidelines in that there are many offense gravity categories.
• One critique I’ve heard is that the Offense Gravity Score now has too many categories and adjustments, and that this might complicate things such as plea negotiations.
• Having more Offense Gravity Score categories could lead to more complicated and slower plea negotiations.

Will the guidelines reduce racial disparities in Pa.’s criminal justice system?

• For example, a December 2023 analysis by the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit global policy think tank, looked at racial disparities within the criminal justice system in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh and is Pennsylvania’s second-most populated county after Philadelphia.
• It found that significant racial disparities exist at each of the key stages of people’s encounter with the criminal justice system, from having charges filed against them to having their parole revoked.
• Courts to some degree inherit disparities from police and prosecutor decision making, though the new guidelines may help to reduce them at later stages, such as sentencing.
• Racial and ethnic disparities in sentencing are widespread in the U.S. and are almost never entirely explained by legally relevant factors such as type of crime committed or criminal history.

C. Clare Strange receives funding from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).

• POTSDAM, NY, March 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Seema Rivera, an Associate Professor of the Institute for STEM Education at Clarkson University has been elected to the New York State Board of Regents by the State Legislature.
• The Board of Regents is comprised of 17 members elected by the Legislature for five-year terms.
• Rivera has served on her local school board for the past nine years, a role she will step down from to accept the Board of Regents position.
• Rivera’s election to the New York State Board of Regents is a well-deserved recognition of the quality of her research and experience in STEM education,” said Clarkson University President Marc P. Christensen, Ph.D., P.E.