The Walter H. McClenon Fund, Inc.
Special report
The
Sentencing Project
514
Summary
The Sentencing Project is a national
organization working for a fair and effective criminal justice system by
promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice and alternatives to
incarceration. Its work is thought to be useful and of good quality. Its lobbying work makes it ineligible for
contributions from our Special Endowment.
It is supported by a number of organizations, probably including the U.S.
Department of Justice.
More information
This project was founded in 1986 to
provide defense lawyers with training and to reduce the incidence of
incarceration. It has become a leader in the effort to bring national attention
to disturbing trends and inequities in the criminal justice system. In 2000
they published a groundbreaking report called “Reducing Racial Disparity in the
Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers.”
(Financed primarily by a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and other
elements of the Department of Justice.) In 2008 they published a second edition
with the same title. (Financed “with the generous support of individual donors
and foundations.”) I am favorably impressed by that second edition, which seems
to deserve attention and consideration.
Should we
contribute?
Our by-laws (III D) list 7 bases
which can be used to qualify an organization’s eligibility for our
contributions. I think that The Sentencing Project qualifies under every one of
them; certainly those about to be sentenced are “persons suffering from a
special handicap.” By-law III G 1,
however, makes them ineligible for a contribution from the special endowment.
I have tended to avoid contributions
to organizations that get a significant amount of their financing from the
government. The Sentencing Project certainly did get help from the Department
of Justice, and without that help it might never have been founded. I haven’t
found a recent financial report, and don’t know what they get now. Charity
Navigator, whose ratings I often consider to be of value, gives them only two
stars where many others get four stars. I think the reason is their poor “fund
raising efficiency.”
My own recommendation is that we
categorize The Sentencing Project as Eligible and Currently Nominated for the
General Endowment and Ineligible for the Special Endowment.