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

But first, a mea culpa…

THOSE PESKY DETAILS

Last week, I reported on a U.S. Sentencing Commission methamphetamine study that debunked the idea that there was anything special about meth with purity over 90%, despite the fact that 80% plus pure meth comes with much higher Guideline sentencing ranges.

I reported that the study found that meth tested by the government in fiscal year (FY) 2022 averaged over 90% pure with a median purity of 98%, “measurements dramatically higher than just two years before, when meth purity ranged from 10 to 80%.”

An alert reader questioned my data. It turns out he was correct.

According to the DEA, meth purity ranged from 10% to 80% in the year 2000, NOT 2020. My embarrassment at my error tests out at 100% purity, and I thank my reader for pointing out the mistake.

USSC, Methamphetamine Trafficking Offenses In The Federal Criminal Justice System (June 13, 2024)

‘WE BURIED THE DUBLIN PROBLEM, SO LET’S STOP TALKING ABOUT IT,’ BOP TELLS COURT

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has asked the U.S. District Court in Oakland to dismiss a class action lawsuit demanding systemic changes at FCI Dublin as moot, on the grounds that no one is imprisoned there anymore.

“The injunctive claims addressing conditions of confinement at FCI Dublin—a facility where no inmates are confined—must be dismissed as moot,” the motion filed last Tuesday argues. The plaintiff’s money damages claims, consideration of which have been stayed until August, would remain on file.

The suit was filed last August by female inmates, alleging rampant sexual assault and retaliation by Dublin staff. BOP abruptly shut down the facility in April shortly after Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers appointed a special master to oversee changes at the prison.

The BOP’s motion admits that Dublin was in “dire need of immediate change.” The agency said, “Following its own deliberative process, BOP leadership determined that it needed to close FCI Dublin and transfer all female adults in custody (AICs) to other federal facilities. The transfer process was conducted subject to various court orders and in coordination with the Court’s special master. That process is now complete, and the AICs previously confined at Dublin are now at new facilities. If Dublin is eventually reopened, it will not be used to house female AICs again.”

The Court has described the closure of Dublin as “hasty and chaotic” but the BOP claims it “was carefully planned” and that the Court was privately advised a month before the April 15 mass movement.

A group of Congressional representatives is investigating allegations that the transfers were conducted inhumanely.

Motion to Dismiss, California Coalition for Women Prisoners v, BOP, ECF 326, Case No 4:23-cv-4155 (ND Cal, June 18, 2024)

KQED-TV, Biden Administration Seeks to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Bay Area Women’s Prison Abuses (June 18, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root