We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
BOP REFORMS ISSUES FSA HABEAS RESOURCE
A nonprofit named BOP Reform reports that it has a tracker listing time-credit and prerelease-placement rulings, organized by district and circuit, with links to the rulings. While I have not yet explored it in detail, it appears to be an excellent resource; Your people can find it at
https://bopreform.org/first-step-act-habeas-tracker-by-district/
WHAT THE BLUE TSUNAMI MAY WASH ASHORE
Unless you were living under a rock last week, you noted the unprecedented midterm election results that flipped both the House and Senate, putting Democrats in control.
The “Blue Tsunami” that swept Democrats into power on November 3 will likely mean more prominent debates on criminal justice issues over the next two years, although with crime rates down, it may be a lower legislative priority.
Both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees will have new leadership. In the House, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is likely to replace the do-nothing Rep. Gym Jordan (D-OH) (the newly-selected House Minority Leader) and whose committee produced very little legislation on criminal justice while being focused on punishing Trump’s enemies.
In the Senate, Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is in line to replace Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a staunch Trump supporter but a forward thinker on criminal justice reform. Grassley and the retiring Sen Richard Durbin (D-IL), while political adversaries, joined forces on pushing the First Step Act through the Senate and have co-sponsored a number of other measures that have not made it to a vote.
Among other issues, Whitehouse is likely to support legislation authorizing more lawsuits against federal law enforcement agencies for abuses by officers. Another important issue for Democrats is the Bureau of Prisons. This year, four House Democrats demanded that the BOP address the agency’s “persistent, unsafe conditions” and “pervasive shortage of critical staff,” driven partly by corrections officers quitting in favor of higher-paying jobs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Democrats’ questions on prisons followed a ProPublica investigation finding that BOP workers were being lured away by the $50,000 starting bonus and higher pay at ICE.
The new Speaker of the House will likely be Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), one of the principal backers of the FSA in the House in 2018.
Writing in his Sentencing Law and Policy blog last week, Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman said,
For many reasons, I doubt the new Democratic governing majorities will prioritize criminal justice issues early in the new Congress. But I am hopeful (though not really optimistic) that any number of “small” sentencing reforms could provide the basis for bipartisan legislation in the next two years. In particular, I like to imagine reform bills which have previously gotten broad bipartisan support in the recent past — such as the EQUAL Act which would fully eliminate the crack/powder sentencing disparity in federal law and the proposal to statutorily prohibit the use of acquitted conduct in federal sentencing — could and should be able to garner broad support in the next Congress.
Criminal Justice Journalists, Will Democratic Victories Change Criminal Justice Policy? (November 4, 2026)
Propublica, “We’re Broken”: As Federal Prisons Run Low on Food and Toilet Paper, Corrections Officers Are Leaving in Droves for ICE (November 2025)
NPR, Hakeem Jeffries is poised to become the first Black speaker of the House (November 4, 2026)
EQUAL Act (118th Cong, S. 1062)
Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act (119th Cong., S. 3483)
~ Thomas L. Root