We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

VACCINATIONS CRAWL AHEAD

The BOP claimed the lowest number of inmate COVID cases yesterday (621) since April 23, 2020, but with the pace of new inmate tests slowing to a crawl, the agency isn’t finding what it isn’t looking for. Staff cases remain as high (at 1,392) as they were the last week of November, and COVID is still present in 124 institutions of thew BOP’s 128 facilities.

The BOP’s vaccination numbers are climbing, but ever so slowly. The first inmates felt the needle in December, but 90 days later, only 9.7% of the inmate population has been inoculated (up from 6.6% a week ago). At this point, 44% of the BOP staff has taken the shot (up from 41% a week before).

Don’t let anyone say BOP employees don’t contribute to their communities. Last week, The Villages, Florida, News reported, “On the day when seven more local COVID-19 deaths were reported, statistics from the BOP showed that 8.55 of cases among staff members across the country are at the massive prison facility in Coleman – just outside the confines of the southern portion of The Villages.”

I have previously expressed skepticism over the BOP’s public numbers of inmates “recovered” from COVID-19. It appears I have company. In United States v. Mathews (reported on yesterday), Judge Karen Nelson Moore noted that “according to the BOP and the Department of Justice, in the federal prison system, 1,804 incarcerated persons have COVID-19, 45,542 have ‘recovered’ from COVID-19, and 222 have died from the virus.” The quotation marks with which she bracketed the word ‘recovered’ suggest the judge has the same trouble accepting the BOP’s reported number as authoritative that many others have.

A New Jersey news outlet reported a story with an all-too-familiar ending. When inmate Dominick Pugliese finally won his CR motion in February, the former Ft Dix inmate was already nearly dead. Dom had told the court in repeated motions that COVID could place him in greater danger of having a serious illness due to his asthma and hypertension, according to court documents.

Prosecutors naturally opposed Dom’s motions, saying he had not served enough of his sentence and questioning the seriousness of his medical issues. By the time Dom was finally released – after repeatedly being turned down – his lawyer told the court that Dom was on a ventilator, no longer respond to verbal or tactile stimuli. Medical staff described his condition as “‘extremely grave,’ with a 78% likelihood of mortality,” counsel said. “The defendant, Dominick Pugliese, is dying.”

The judge finally agreed to release Dom, holding that “the severity of his condition suggests that at best he may be facing prolonged hospitalization and rehabilitation.” That turned out to be optimistic. Dom died on March 6. The good news for the BOP, of course, is that its bean counters did not have to add his death to the current 240-deceased inmate tally.

Villages News, 8.5 percent of COVID-19 cases among federal prison staff at Coleman facility (March 8, 2021)

NJ.com, 2 inmates begged for release from federal prison in N.J. where coronavirus raged. They both died of COVID. (March 13, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root