The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency in the judicial branch. Its primary goals are to establish sentencing policies and practices for the federal courts; to advise and assist Congress and the executive branch with the development of crime policies; and to collect, analyze and research an array of federal crime and sentencing issues.

Some resources on the USSC website are:

• The Guidelines Newsletter provides information on Commission activities, research findings, and proposed guideline amendments among other topics. The newsletter is published periodically and is in a browsable format.

• You can obtain federal sentencing statistics by state, district and circuit. The years covered are 1995-2002. The statistics are in a browsable format.

• There is also a list with links to the full-text of Federal Register Notices (1996-present) regarding proposed amendments, requests for public comments, and public hearings of the Commission.

• Transcripts of Public Commission Meeting Minutes and Public Hearing Testimony are available as well.

• As mentioned in a previous tip, you can also obtain the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual, full-text, on the U.S. Sentencing Commission website.