Attempts at Fair Sentencing in the United States and Korea:A Historical View of Sentencing Guidelines and Mandatory Minimums in Two Vastly Different Criminal Justice Systems

Since the 1970s, the United States has relied on Sentencing Guidelines and Mandatory Minimums to punish criminal defendants. The United States Sentencing Commission was created to help reduce sentencing disparity and create uniform sentencing in the federal criminal justice system. The implementation of the federal sentencing guidelines has resulted in numerous legislative and judicial battles and a drastic increase in the prison population.
To decrease sentencing disparity, reduce prosecutorial favoritism and increase public trust in the criminal justice system, Korea has recently begun to implement the sentencing guidelines. In 2007, the Korean Sentencing Commission was created. Korea has chosen to implement the gradual and narrative model of sentencing guidelines rather than the ¡°grid¡± model that the United States uses. This article will explore the history and results of the 40 years of United States sentencing guidelines and the emergence of the Korean sentencing guidelines and compare the two.
Korea, a country with a nearly racially homogeneous population, a criminal justice system that does not engage in plea bargaining, and a comparatively low percentage of drug crimes system to the United States will not face some of the problems that the United States criminal justice system faces. Despite these differences, Korea is moving away from judicial discretion and can look to the past in the United States as a way to see the effects of lessened judicial discretion. By balancing the desire for conformity in sentencing with the need for judicial discretion and taking the gradual and narrative approach to sentencing guidelines, it is hopeful that Korea will avoid many of these problems and will not suffer from increased incarceration or any of the other problems that the United States has faced in the past 40 years.