We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
EITHER GOOD OR BAD
Maybe you’ve noticed our good-and-bad theme this week. Here are some shorts:
Good: The DC Circuit last week joined seven other circuits in holding that Guideline 1B1.13 does not limit compassionate release motions when those motions are brought by prisoners instead of the BOP.
The Circuit just joins seven other circuits since last September to so hold. Only the 11th Circuit disagrees.
United States v. Long, Case No 20-3064, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 14682 (DC Cir., May 18, 2021)
Bad: The two Federal Bureau of Prisons Correctional Officerss who were supposed to be watching Jeffrey Epstein, later charged for lying to investigators and phonying up records to hide the fact they were cruising the Web instead, last week entered guilty pleas in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under deferred prosecution deals that will cost them 100 hours of community service but no prison time.
Forbes, Federal Prison Guards Admit To Filing False Records During Jeffrey Epstein’s Suicide (May 21, 2021)
Good: Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota and John Cornyn (R-Texas), and House Reps. Karen Bass (D-California) and Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pennsylvania) introduced the One Stop Shop Community Reentry Program Act last week, a bill that would set up reentry centers to help coordinate access to job training, medical and mental health services, and financial counseling. The centers would also help individuals land jobs, gain job-skill training, obtain driver’s licenses, fill out college and student loan applications and receive financial counseling.
The bill passed the House in the last session of Congress, but never came to a vote in the Senate.
NPR, Congress Wants To Set Up One-Stop Shops To Help Ex-Inmates Stay Out Of Prison (May 20, 2021)
Bad: Dr. Homer Venters, an epidemiologist tasked by a federal court with inspecting FCC Lompoc reported last week that the facility has “an alarmingly low vaccination acceptance rate among the inmate population,” due to prison staff neglecting to address inmates’ “very valid and predictable concerns” about the effects the vaccine might have on their underlying health conditions.
Rather than address inmate fears, Venters said, prison staff dismissively told the inmates to either “take the vaccine or sign a refusal form.” He reported to the Court that “many of the people who reported refusing the vaccine told me they were willing to take it but simply had questions about their own health status.”
“The approach of BOP Lompoc not only fails to engage with patients; it has a paradoxical effect of creating a pool of extremely high-risk unvaccinated patients,” he wrote. “In other detention settings I have worked in, a COVID-19 refusal by a high-risk patient would result in a prompt session with a physician or mid-level provider because the consequences of infection are so grave.”
Santa Barbara Independent, Doctor ‘Extremely Concerned’ About Low Vaccination Rate Among Lompoc Prisoners (May 20)
– Thomas L. Root