The Sentencing Guideline Ranges Aren't Making Much of a Difference, Right?

The sentencing guide lines used to be mandatory, but have now become simply recommendations. In general, what you're going to find is that the sentencing guide lines don't tell you a lot about sentencing really at all. And so if you're telling judges that they're just recommendations, the judges are like, cool. Under the lawou as a judge, you do have to explain why you're departing from the guide line range,. But as long as you explain it, you're fine. Most judges don't sentence within the guide line ranges on child pornography cases. Maybe that's a bad thing, and maybe they should be giving more time in those cases.