History of Sentencing Advocacy
Sentencing advocacy
has come a long way from its formative years in the mid-1800's, when a shoe maker in Boston named John Augustus first
offered his services to advocate for releases from jail when the circumstances were appropriate. Our profession has gone on
to see some significant developments. Turning the calendar forward to more contempory times, our systemic growth and acceptance
within various regions of the country has been on the move since 1970.
During the 1980's, national
studies were conducted to examine our degree of impact upon the realm of justice. The result of those investigations were
able to conclude that sentencing advocates had clearly been able to influence change. There had been a shift in practices
away from a reliance upon incarceration and a movement toward the use of alternative community-based dispositions for defendants.
Some states even began to fund the creation of defense-based advocacy programs in order to reduce their use of the jails and
prison systems. We are a sole-proprietorship as oposed to being governmentally funded. We have no eligibility exclusions -
meaning that anybody can access our time and attention. We are based in southern California and we really do offer the widest
range of services to our clients and their council.
Our national alliance was formally founded
in 1992 and as a group, we have developed our own professional code of ethics, a national membership and on-going professional
development opportunities. Our mitigation specialists offer expertise in working with those who face a capital death sentence,
providing the court an opportunity to better understand a defendant in these sorts of extreme circumstance.
