We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
FIRST STEP: TRUMP FIDDLES WHILE BOP BURNS
President Donald Trump touted the First Step Act in a speech last Friday at the 2019 Second Step Presidential Justice Forum in South Carolina, talking about how the Act helped African Americans by releasing thousands of non-violent offenders to gain early release from federal prison.
“In America, you’re innocent until proven guilty and we don’t have investigations in search of that crime,” he said while accepting an award at historically black Benedict College for his role in passage of First Step. “Justice, fairness and due process are core tenets of our democracy. These are timeless principles I will faithfully uphold as president.”
Much of what was said at the conference was overshadowed by Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California), who refused to attend the conference because Trump was included on the list of speakers. Harris, whose record as a take-no-prisoners prosecutor has caused some to be skeptical of her 11th-hour conversion to the cause of criminal justice, flip-flopped on the boycott threat and agreed to show after all, after winning a window-dressing removal of one of the sponsors for its sin of giving an award to Trump.
During the hour-long address, Trump called on several people who had been released from prison under the First Step Act to the stage to offer testimonials.
Many of Trump’s Democratic presidential rivals spoke over the weekend, and took turns slamming Trump. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, argued, “The fact of the matter is Donald Trump was given an award for the 10 seconds it took him to sign a bill into law that contradicts every one of his instincts and history of promoting racist criminal justice policies.”
I’m no Trump fan, but Sen. Booker needs to be fact-checked on this assertion.
All was not bliss for implementation of First Step last week. Filter magazine, launched in September 2018 to advocate for rational and compassionate approaches to drug use, drug policy and human rights, blasted the Bureau of Prisons for its “incompetent” application of the star-crossed additional 7 days-a-year good time.
Citing long-time prisoners who would be camp-eligible if they were granted the additional good time to which they are entitled, Filter said that due to “a potential failure, attributable to administrative inadequacy, to apply a much-anticipated reform to… federal prisoners until over a year after it was supposed to be implemented in July 2019.
Filter reported that as of September 16th, the Designation and Sentence Computation Center “had made First Step Act updates only for incarcerated people with previously projected release dates that fell before October 2020.” The magazine quoted a response to an August 22 administrative remedy request for recalculation filed by an anonymous inmate, in which the BOP gave no clear date for when the inmate could expect an updated GCT calculation, only explaining their prioritization of projected release dates and stating that “there may be some variance in the speed with each DSCC team completes the recalculations for the inmates assigned to them.” The BOP said “this process may take up to a year.”
A BOP official told Filter that implementing the change in good time is “complex” due to the “various federal statutes and BOP policy” with which recalculations must be “carried out in accordance.”
The BOP’s information technology systems are “dinosaurs,” Kara Gotsch, the director of strategic initiatives for The Sentencing Project, told Filter, citing explanations she’s heard from BOP staffers. Gotsch said that even this description “is generous,” adding that “it’s like they don’t have the right kind of computer” to perform the recalculations in time.
The BOP denied this claim, calling Gotsch’s explanation “speculation based on hearsay,” and added that “the computers and technology utilized by our staff are not outdated and incompetent. They use commercially-available and fully-supported technology.
Speculation it may be, but the BOP has known since last Christmas it would have to recalculate inmate good time. It’s failure to get the process in place, which would require the use of a simple formula that any high school math geek could write with a Texas Instruments nine-buck calculator, is equally explainable as institutional arrogance or institutional incompetence.
The Columbia, South Carolina, State, Trump’s Columbia visit wraps with praise of HBCUs and reform, peaceful demonstrations (Oct. 26)
Filter, The Consequences of an Incompetent First Step Act Rollout (Oct. 15)
– Thomas L. Root