DEJA SHU and MINI-RANT
It’s disheartening to see studies by the DOJ-IG and GAO that find the same things repeatedly with little impact on the issue studied. What’s worse is that their lack of working in the trenches of the BOP hurts the identification of what I refer to as the “low hanging fruit” of reforms that could be accomplished almost overnight with leadership under the existing policy and agency framework. These broad systemic changes will never take place until the BOP has transparency and accountability. On the Special Housing Unit front, I’ve been getting a lot of complaints lately and thought it would be timely to bring some issues that people around the country may be running into. The GAU report released yesterday makes this article even a bit timelier. In true government fashion, they are once again going to spend taxpayer money for yet another solitary confinement study which is appalling [...]
Disappointed in LA
I just returned from the annual U.S. Sentencing Commission seminar in Los Angeles. It is the only forum I am aware of in which the BOP presentation is open to the public. While it is usually a superficial session, this one lacked the technical policy information of past seminars and was more of a public relations campaign expressing greater BOP transparency, accountability and compassion. While I would love to believe this mantra, my day-to-day experiences with incarcerated people and staff tell me otherwise. For instance, I was able to raise the question in front of over a thousand participants and asked about people who are being approved for less time in pre-release custody than the amount of pre-release credits “earned” under the FSA. I got the impression they were unaware of this issue, as they danced around the question then concluded by saying they simply don’t have the bed space [...]
More of the Same (venting blog!)
Early this week, a brief Op Ed was published in The Hill related to solitary confinement by co-authors Collette Peters, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Nancy Levigne, Director of the National Institute of Justice. https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4175480-promoting-safer-and-more-humane-environments-the-imperative-of-studying-restrictive-housing-in-corrections/ While I applaud their efforts and intention, the article is one of many in a long line of platitudes that focus on inhumane restrictive housing unit practices. These editorials have a minimal impact in changing our archaic prison system and do little more than appease beltway academics and advocates with rhetoric while reminding the world of our failure to adhere to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners referred to the Mandella Rules. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (unodc.org) The article caused me to reflect on the various congressional hearings, initiatives and reports on the issue such as- REASSESSING SOLITARY CONFINEMENT: THE [...]
Reflections on First Step Act Feedback submitted in 2019 – Still valid today! Go figure……….
June 14, 2019 To: IRC/FBOP/NIJ I am writing today with feedback as a citizen, stakeholder (FedCURE) and retired BOP employee with over 30 years of experience working directly with people incarcerated in the federal prison system. I respectfully request this feedback be considered and put on the record. My perspective is unique because I was involved with training BOP correctional programs staff, auditing facilities, writing policy and classifying thousands of people since the 1980’s under the various classification manuals and current risk assessment tool. I have worked in all types of prison units including pre-trial, witness security (WITSEC) min, low, medium and high. I currently testify around the country on federal prison issues and train federal defenders and judges on the BOP in general. One of my passions is federal prison reform. (CV attached) I am providing feedback to various areas under review by the IRC. My primary [...]
Monthly First Step Act Update (The Chaos Continues) 3/6/23
It did not take long for the BOP to issue a change notice to Program Statement 5410.01, FSA of 2018-Time Credits: For Implementation of 18 USC 3632 (d)(4). This change allows credits for people with detainers which was inevitable because of the litigation around the country because of the BOP’s creation of a restriction that was not in the law. It also allows non-citizens to be awarded credit provided they do not have a final order of deportation. This change resulted in a modification of the computer application and DSCC staff were reportedly working on a Sunday that weekend processing computations for immediate releases. I had anticipated the detainer change this for a while but not the non-citizen issue. Last week, I was informed some non-citizens who received time credits had their release date changed, then changed back again. The non-citizenship issue is a bit more nuanced since the BOP [...]
ALL GOOD THINGS COMES TO AN END
The big news this week was the announcement to the end of the national emergency for Covid-19 declared by President Biden over thirty-five months ago. The timing was interesting as it comes just over a month after the BOP updated their CARES ACT Home Detention criteria. While there was not much new in the criteria, it clarified the 25% & 50 % eligibility issue. From my perspective, the preceding memo from April 2021, was broad and inconsistently applied around the country regarding the eligibility timeframes. The previous memo listed the eligibility percentages of the “sentence;” while the updated memo distinctly lists the “statutory sentence”. Further, the memo also indicates a further distinction that the FSA/FTC (time credits) do not apply in the eligibility determination. I might look at these issues from a very micro perspective, but most facilities thus far have interpreted the eligibility as the entire sentence (ie:50 [...]