Prof. Jack Kress

Prof. Jack Kress

Director, Ethics and Justice Center 

Jack Kress has published more than 15 books and 70 articles on various issues of justice and ethics.  He is perhaps best known for his early work co-originating the very concept of sentencing guidelines and directing the research projects that developed and implemented the first sentencing guidelines systems in America; he has been called the "father of sentencing guidelines" by ABC News.  He helped establish the sentencing guidelines systems now in place in more than half the states, and also worked with Congress and the Department of Justice in first bringing the United States Sentencing Commission into existence.  An elected life member of the American Law Institute, Professor Kress lectures broadly on criminal justice and sentencing reform; he is presently consulting with the ALI's Reporter in revising the Model Penal Code's sentencing provisions.

Professor Jack Kress holds degrees from Columbia University and Cambridge University; he has been tenured and taught at several law and other graduate schools.  A former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, his more recent work has been in ethics and bioethics.

In 1990, Professor Kress was named Special Counsel for Ethics and Designated Agency Ethics Official for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, where he worked with the Office of White House Counsel and the U. S. Office of Government Ethics in formulating the federal government's ethics policies; he concurrently directed the largest federal ethics and bioethics program, encompassing all components of HHS, including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  In 2001, Jack Kress was selected as the first Executive Director of the HHS Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation, and led that group in promulgating and implementing more than forty recommendations for reform in America’s donation and transplantation system, including the establishment of the national breakthrough collaborative.  From 2004-2009, Professor Kress was a core faculty member of the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College.  His most recent peer-reviewed article was published in the prestigious American Journal of Transplantation.  He presently directs the Ethics and Justice Center in Saratoga Springs, New York.   See www.ethicsandjustice.org