We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
Today, a “short rocket” of odds and ends collected over the last week or so…
THE SHORT ROCKET
Editorial Calls For Change In BOP: In an editorial bemoaning recent reports on BOP facilities and management failings, the Washington Post on Saturday demanded passage of S.3545, The Prison Accountability Act of 2022.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons generally labors in obscurity, except when a high-profile inmate arrives, as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes did the other day, or when a notorious one passes away, most recently FBI-agent-turned-Russian-spy Robert Hanssen. And yet its mission — housing roughly 159,000 people convicted of federal crimes humanely and securely, and then fostering their reentry to society — is crucial to the rule of law. The BOP operates 122 facilities at a cost of about $8.4 billion in fiscal 2023, the second-biggest budget item, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the Justice Department. With more than 34,000 personnel, the BOP is the department’s largest employer.
The editorial concluded that “[i]t’s time for more attention to be paid to the BOP. A steady flow of reports has documented an agency beset by chronic problems — unsanitary kitchens, sexual assaults, an astonishing recidivism rate of around 43 percent — in urgent need of reform.” Plugging the FPOA, the Post argued, “The BOP needs stable leadership, without which consistent policy cannot be sustained, let alone reformed. Its director should be nominated by the president for a single 10-year term, subject to Senate confirmation, like the director of the FBI. A measure proposed in both houses last year would make this change, yet it languishes… The need for structural change at the BOP is clear. So are the costs of inaction.”
Washington Post, How to end the dysfunction at the Federal Bureau of Prisons (June 10, 2023)
Another Presidential Hopeful Slams First Step Act: Mike Pence – who announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination last Wednesday – told an Iowa town hall event that there’s a need to “rethink” First Step, signed by then-President Trump while Pence was serving as vice president.
“I think we need to take a step back and rethink the First Step Act,” Pence said at an Iowa town hall event. “I mean we’ve got a crime wave in our major cities, and I think now more than ever we ought to be thinking about how we make penalties tougher on people who are victimizing families in this country.”
Pence’s comments reflect how sharply the Republican position on crime and criminal justice reform has shifted in the roughly four years since Trump signed First Step into law.
The Spectator noted the recent Republican phenomenon, which began with Ron DeSantis – who himself voted for a House version of First Step back in spring 2018 – going after Donald Trump for signing the bill:
The GOP’s abandonment of criminal justice reform is likely a welcome change for tough-on-crime mainstays like Senators Tom Cotton and John Kennedy, who voted against the First Step Act, while the libertarian wing of the party will be vexed. The real story will be in how these internal fights are received by primary voters, as 80 percent of Republicans said crime is a real threat in communities in a March NPR poll. Which primary candidates can run the fastest from the perception that they might be gracious to criminals?
The Hill, Pence: Time to ‘rethink’ criminal justice reform bill signed by Trump (June 7, 2023)
The Spectator, The GOP is sprinting away from criminal justice reform (June 12, 2023)
BOP Employees Charged With Lying About Dying Inmate: A BOP correctional lieutenant and a nurse are accused of ignoring the serious medical needs of a man who died under their supervision at FCI Petersburg, federal prosecutors said.
BOP Lt. Shronda Covington was told the 47-year-old inmate, identified in the indictment as W.W., was eating out of a trash can, urinating on himself and falling down the day before his death in January 2021 at FCI Petersburg in Hopewell, according to court documents. However, she told federal investigators that W.W. was walking around his cell, doing pushups and listening to music on January 9, 2021, the indictment alleges.
Tonya Farley, a BOP RN, has been charged with filing a false report.
The employees were charged on June 6 with violating the man’s civil rights “by showing deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs, resulting in his death,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a news release. The man died due to heart issues on Jan. 10, 2021, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
Rock Hill Herald, Man accused of faking illness dies in prison after medical needs are ignored, feds say (June 8, 2023)
US Attorney’s Office, Two Federal Bureau of Prisons Employees Charged with Violating the Civil Rights of an Inmate Resulting in His Death (June 7, 2023)
– Thomas L. Root