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BOP COVID Numbers Skyrocketing – Update for December 30, 2021

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

O-M-CHRON!

omicron211230COVID numbers, both in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and nationally, continue to shoot upward as COVID omicron has become the dominant strain of coronavirus in the USA.

As of last night, the BOP broke 1,000 inmate cases (1,011), up 25% in one day, with staff cases at 387, up 12% overnight. COVID was present in 114 of 122 facilities, or 93% of all BOP prisons. As of last week, the BOP reported that 73% of inmates and 69% of the staff are vaccinated.

Nationally, the country added nearly a half-million cases yesterday. Experts are estimating over 140 million people will catch COVID in the next four weeks.

BOP COVID-19211230

The big COVID flareup in the system last week was at FPC Alderson, a female facility. Forbes reported on Christmas Eve that of the 665 “inmates at the institution, 1o8 have active COVID cases and 43 have recently recovered … over 20% are currently or recently infected.” An attorney who represents women at the facility told Forbes, “The conditions there are just abhorrent. Women are sick, there is no hot water in the quarantine unit and staff is short. I’ve contacted the mayor (of Alderson, WV), the Bureau of Prisons and anyone who will look into this crisis.” The attorney said, “there are women there who are eligible to be placed on CARES Act home confinement, but they are languishing there as the pandemic’s Omicron variant rips through the facility.”

plaguebop211230Monday, USP Allenwood was number one with 143 sick inmates. As of yesterday, MCC Chicago had taken the lead with 132 sick inmates as Allenwood experienced the miraculous recovery of 29 inmates. (I have written before about the BOP’s questionable “recovered” declarations. In fact, 56% of all BOP inmate COVID deaths in the last nine months have been of “recovered” inmates).

The Marshall Project reported last week that “as with previous iterations of the virus, ‘everything about prisons and jails makes them a setup to magnify the harms of omicron. ‘The overcrowding. The poor sanitary conditions. The lack of access to health care,’ said Monik Jimenez, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s School of Public Health. ‘Masking is only going to do so much when you have people on top of you’.”

A federal prisoner in Florida told TMP that “They’re not telling us anything about omicron or anything else for that matter.”

quackdoc210707The Nation reported that “Under the weight of ongoing Covid-19 outbreaks and staff vaccine refusal, sickness, death, no-shows, and rapid turnover, jails and prisons have become increasingly deadly places for those who live and work inside their walls. Failures to protect those held in America’s roughly 5,150 jails and prisons have made these institutions into taxpayer-funded epidemic engines that have driven millions of preventable Covid-19 cases throughout US communities. In response, the consensus among national health and safety experts has been that large-scale decarceration is required to protect the public. For almost two years, lawmakers have largely ignored the appeals of health leaders, incarcerated people, prison staff, and community activists who know very well that, despite claims to the contrary, mass incarceration does not serve public safety.”

Johns Hopkins University, Coronavirus Resource Center (December 29, 2021)

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Anticipated COVID-19 Omicron infections in United States (December 22, 2021)

Forbes, The Women’s Federal Prison Camp At Alderson In Middle Of COVID-19 Outbreak (December 24, 2021)

The Marshall Project, Omicron Has Arrived. Many Prisons and Jails Are Not Ready. (December 22, 2021)

The Nation, As Covid Surges Again, Decarceration Is More Necessary Than Ever (December 22, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

Jayvon, We Hardly Knew Ye… – Update for December 28, 2021

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

LEAVING SO SOON?

justgothere211228Jayvon Keitt was charged with a drug conspiracy involving 280 grams of crack, but he took a deal letting him plead to 28 grams instead. As a result, his mandatory minimum fell from 10 to five years, although his Guidelines sentencing range remained 70-87 months. At sentencing, the judge varied downward to give Jayvon 60 months.

So far, a pretty good deal…

Naturally, Jayvon didn’t appeal, because the sentence couldn’t go any lower than it did, given the mandatory minimum.  However, less than four months into his sentence, Jayvon filed a compassionate release motion under 18 USC § 3582(c)(1)(A)(1), seeking immediate release. Jayvon said his asthma raised the risks he faced if he caught COVID in prison, and thus was an extraordinary and compelling reason for sentence reduction. He argued that the “BOP’s restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus have led to harsh lockdowns, restrictions on movement between jails, and have all but eliminated educational and other program[m]ing opportunities,” making his ability to participate in drug treatment programs uncertain.

The district court denied Jayvon’s motion after considering the 18 USC § 3553(a) sentencing factors, holding that he had sold a lot of drugs and had already gotten a real sentence break. The judge ruled that a sentence reduction would lead to a sentencing disparity (given the mandatory minimum Jayvon would be dodging). The district court made no finding as to whether Jayvon’s health risks constituted “extraordinary and compelling circumstances.”

break211228

Last week, the 2nd Circuit agreed that the district court had not abused its discretion in weighing the sentencing factors. As for Jayvon’s claim that the district court was obligated to make a finding on whether extraordinary and compelling circumstances justified his release, the Circuit said that “when a district court denies a defendant’s motion under § 3582(c)(1)(A) in sole reliance on the applicable § 3553(a) sentencing factors, it need not determine whether the defendant has shown extraordinary and compelling reasons that might (in other circumstances) justify a sentence reduction.”

United States v. Keitt, Case No 21-13-cr, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 37888 (2d Cir., December 22, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

Rudolph Never Had It This Bad… – Update for December 27, 2021

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

A LUMP OF COAL FOR CENTRAL OFFICE

The other reindeer used to laugh and call Rudolph names… but not in publications circulating on Capitol Hill.

rudolph211227First, Forbes ran a piece a week ago on BOP employee misconduct. Forbes noted that employees are rarely filed, with the BOP “preferring to offer them retirement or reassignment. The article pointed out that then-Attorney General William Barr told a Fraternal Order of Police conference after Jeffrey Epstein’s death that “we are now learning of serious irregularities” at MCC New York, where Epstein was found dead …” and “[we] will get to the bottom of what happened and that there will be accountability.”  

In the end, Forbes said, “two corrections officers were indicted (later entered into a deferred prosecution agreement) while nobody in executive management was charged.” Warden Lamine N’Diaye, who was in charge of notorious MCC New York at the time, was never accused of wrongdoing. He was promoted to be warden at FCI Fort Dix, a considerably larger institution. Edsel Ford, Robert S. McNamara. Lamine N’Diaye… upward failures all.

Retirement is another way the BOP rids itself of an embarrassing employee. There is less press, and the agency can force responsibility on the taxpayers to pay a lifetime pension in exchange for hiding an indiscretion from the public. Plus, retirement derails most investigations by the DOJ Inspector General, because an agency generally cannot take disciplinary action against a retired employee.

badapple211227Once in a while, however, the employee goes to the mat before the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service, and the public gets a view of bad behavior inside the agency. Forbes reported on a Dec 9 FMCS order upholding the firing of an FCI Miami employee who paid inmates with food for performing his job, including using a staff computer to write emails, place online orders for supplies, search the BOP’s workers’ compensation data, take telephone calls for [the staff member], prepare Equal Employment Opportunity complaints and write correspondence to FCI Miami’s warden regarding a negative performance review” the staff member had gotten.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported details from a recently unsealed indictment against a BOP employee accused of conspiring with two inmates to smuggle drugs into USP Atlanta.

None of this is helpful to BOP Director Michael Carvajal, whose firing was demanded a month ago by Sen Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) after news broke about BOP employees committing serious crimes. Last week, a former BOP Director threw gasoline on the dumpster fire in a piece published in The Hill. Perhaps, to pile on the metaphors, I should say the article  threw Carvajal a lifeline… with an anvil tied to the other end.

fault200814Former BOP Director Hugh Hurwitz said it’s not necessarily the director’s fault (but he did not suggest that Carvajal not be fired). Federal prisons “are in crisis, riddled with deep and systemic ills that won’t be cured by simply replacing the BOP chief,” Hurwitz wrote. “In fact, we’ve already tried that. Carvajal, appointed last year, became the sixth director or acting director in just five years.”

Hurwitz called for sentencing reform, including “mandating a greater reliance on drug courts, community service and other alternatives to prison, such as halfway houses. It also means eliminating mandatory minimum penalties for drug crimes…”

As for the BOP itself, Hurwitz urged the Attorney General to adopt a “recommendation from the Council on Criminal Justice’s Task Force on Federal Priorities, which called for creation of an independent oversight board for the BOP. This would bring outside expertise to bear on the agency’s multiple challenges while retaining the career leadership that historically has served the agency well.”

Hurwitz called for rebuilding the federal criminal justice system “so that it is smaller, less punitive, more humane and safer for all. With political will, independent oversight and an unwavering commitment, we can make holistic change to a system long in need of it.”

The drumbeats continue and the bad press rolls on. Can the Director hold on?

Forbes, FCI Miami Federal Prison Employee Fired For Using Inmates To Help Perform His Job (December 21, 2021)

Federal Times, A BOP supervisor abused their position then quit. What happens next? (January 6, 2020)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Prison officer indicted in smuggling scheme never met co-defendants, lawyer says (December 22, 2021)

The Hill, To fix our prison system, we need far more than a change in leadership (December 22, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

2021 So Far a Downer for Criminal Justice Reform – Update for December 23, 2021

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

THE YEAR BEGAN WITH SUCH HOPE, TOO…

At the end of the first 11 months of President Biden’s administration, a combination of his lack of action on criminal justice reform, a razor-thin majority in Congress, and an ill-timed spike in crime is rapidly undercutting hope of criminal reform.

fail200526As New York magazine put it last week, “The president is now facing a new political context. In the previous two years, cities across the United States have seen historically large spikes in multiple categories of crime, including homicides in many places… The sense that things are terrible — even if they are happening during a multi-decade downward trend in crime rates and have likely been exacerbated by a global pandemic — seems to be costing the president politically as well. The results of an ABC/Ipsos poll published on Monday showed that just 36% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of crime, down from 43% in late October.

Critics working to overhaul the criminal justice system say they’re frustrated with the Biden administration after waiting nearly a year for the White House to take significant clemency and sentencing reform steps. “I think we’re at a point where we’re saying mere lip service isn’t enough,” said Sakira Cook, senior director of the justice reform program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “We want to see some concrete action.”

“To me, it’s a bellwether,” said FAMM President Kevin Ring. “Because if the administration won’t address this, and address it immediately, I don’t know what hope we can have that other things are going to get done.”

A White House spokesman defended Biden’s record, arguing that he had restored the Dept of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice, implemented new restrictions on chokeholds and no-knock warrants for federal law enforcement, ended contracts with private prisons, and expanded access to re-entry services for released inmates. And critics admit DOJ’s rescission of the Trump-era memo that directed prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges they could for any crime. And just this week, DOJ walked back the Trump-era Office of Legal Counsel opinion that CARES Act home confinees had to return to prison after the national pandemic emergency ends.

Still, there’s no denying that the federal prison population dropped under Presidents Obama and Trump but has increased by some 5,000 people during Biden’s 11 months in office.

confusion200424To be sure, Biden’s plans were never well thought out. As Ralph Behr pointed out last week in the South Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog, Biden’s campaign last year called for passage of the Safe Justice Act, a bill killed by the House in 2017. He also called for abolishing mandatory minimums, which would require amending hundreds of statutes, something that “would require bipartisan support for an issue that has historically proven controversial. This is unlikely to gain enough support even to be drafted. The more likely and admirable implementation would be to allow judicial discretion in sentencing below the minimum mandatory sentence.”

As the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights demanded last week, Biden and his DOJ could expand CARES Act and compassionate release access. Or, as the Daily Caller suggested, he could demand that the BOP and its union clear up the logjam on implementing First Step Act earned time credit programs.

Legislatively, there’s one bright spot: The Hill reported this past weekend that Congressional Democrats are gearing up for a sweeping set of initiatives aimed at decriminalizing marijuana in spring 2022.

The proposals would, among other things, purge the criminal records of thousands of marijuana offenders and be retroactive for those serving marijuana sentences.

“The growing bipartisan momentum for cannabis reform shows that Congress is primed for progress in 2022, and we are closer than ever to bringing our cannabis policies and laws in line with the American people,” Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) and Barbara Lee (D-California) wrote in a memo to the Congressional Cannabis Caucus on Thursday.

Just last week, Marijuana Moment complained last week that “this is yet another example of legislators taking a demand for reform directly to the president, who has disappointed advocates in his first year in office by declining to take meaningful steps to change the country’s approach to cannabis despite campaigning on a pro-decriminalization and pre-rescheduling platform.”

crackpowder160606On crack cocaine, Biden could push Senate Democrats to pass S.79, the EQUAL Act, which has already passed the House and has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. Last week, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) because a co-sponsor.

The Justice Action Network issued a statement saying, “With this level of bipartisan support, the drumbeat grows louder for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to vote the EQUAL Act. In New York, more than twenty leading New York-based civil rights, racial justice and criminal justice organizations recently sent an urgent letter to Leader Schumer urging him to move the EQUAL Act through the Senate, ‘by any means necessary’…”

New York magazine, Biden’s Low Marks on Crime Are Killing Reform (December 15, 2021)

South Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog, Analyzing President Joe Biden’s Criminal Justice Reform Plan (December 14, 2021)

NPR, Activists wanted Biden to revamp the justice system. Many say they’re still waiting (December 12, 2021)

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland (December 17, 2021)

Daily Caller, The First Step Act Is A Giant Leap Toward Meaningful, Bipartisan Prison Reform (December 13, 2021)

The Hill, Congress to take up marijuana reform this spring (December 18, 2021)

Marijuana Moment, GOP Lawmakers Blast Biden And Harris Over ‘Continued Silence’ On Marijuana And Urge Rescheduling (December 16, 2021)

Seattle Medium, It’s Time For The U.S. Senate To Pass The EQUAL Act (December 17, 2021)

Justice Action Network, Senator Susan Collins Joins Bipartisan Sentencing Reform Bill, Positioning Equal Act for Passage (December 15, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

Biden DOJ Flips, Says CARES Act People Can Stay Home – Update for December 22, 2021

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

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

holidays211222Eleven months of uncertainty came to an abrupt and welcome end yesterday as Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Dept. of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel had reversed its January 2021 opinion, concluding that inmates sent to home confinement under the CARES Act will not have to return to prison when the COVID-19 national pandemic emergency ends. 

The decision reversed the OLC’s swan song from the last days of the Trump Administration that

the CARES Act authorizes the Director of BOP to place prisoners in home confinement only during the statute’s covered emergency period and when the Attorney General finds that the emergency conditions are materially affecting BOP’s functioning. Should that period end, or should the Attorney General revoke the finding, the Bureau would be required to recall the prisoners to correctional facilities unless they are otherwise eligible for home confinement under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2). We also conclude that the general imprisonment authorities of 18 U.S.C. § 3621(a) and (b) do not supplement the CARES Act authority to authorize home confinement under the Act beyond the limits of section 3624(c)(2).

Last July, things looked dire when the New York Times reported that the Biden DOJ had reviewed the OLC opinion and concluded that it was right. That was perhaps a trial balloon, because DOJ made no official announcement about any review. Nevertheless, the Times story unleashed a storm of criticism.

But yesterday, the Biden DOJ left a shiny gift under the tree for about 4,000 federal prisoners on home confinement. The new OLC memorandum begins

This Office concluded in January 2021 that, when the COVID-19 emergency ends, the Bureau of Prisons will be required to recall all prisoners placed in extended home confinement under section 12003(b)(2) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act who are not otherwise eligible for home confinement under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2). Having been asked to reconsider, we now conclude that section12003(b)(2) and the Bureau’s preexisting authorities are better read to give the Bureau discretion to permit prisoners in extended home confinement to remain there.

gift211222The New York Times said this morning that the OLC’s reversal “was a rare instance when the department under Attorney General Merrick B. Garland reversed a high-profile Trump-era decision. It was also a victory for criminal justice advocates.”

But not completely unexpected. During a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing last October, Garland said, “It would be a terrible policy to return these people to prison after they have shown that they are able to live in home confinement without violations, and as a consequence, we are reviewing the OLC memorandum… [and] all about other authorities that Congress may have given us to permit us to keep people on home confinement.”

He promised Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) that “we’re not in a circumstance where anybody will be returned before we have completed that review and implemented any changes we need to make.” At that session, Committee Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL) complained that he was “frustrated by DOJ’s handling of COVID and prison issues.”

Yesterday, Garland said in a statement, “Thousands of people on home confinement have reconnected with their families, have found gainful employment and have followed the rules. In light of today’s Office of Legal Counsel opinion, I have directed that the Department engage in a rulemaking process to ensure that the Department lives up to the letter and the spirit of the CARES Act. We will exercise our authority so that those who have made rehabilitative progress and complied with the conditions of home confinement, and who in the interests of justice should be given an opportunity to continue transitioning back to society, are not unnecessarily returned to prison.”

A White House spokesman said in a statement that President Biden welcomed the change, noting “the relief it will mean for thousands of individuals on home confinement who have worked hard toward rehabilitation and are contributing to their communities.”

christmasunderpants211222Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman had an interesting observation about Garland’s statement in his Sentencing Law and Policy blog: “This statement by AG Garland suggests that DOJ is now going to engage in ‘rulemaking’ that will create a set of requirements or criteria about who may get to stay on home confinement and who might be returned to prison after the pandemic ends. I am not sure how that rulemaking process will work, but I am sure the AG statement is hinting (or flat-out saying) that there will still be some in the “home confinement cohort” who may need to worry about eventually heading back to federal prison.”

For now, the impetus for prisoners to qualify for CARES Act placement, which can continue as long as the emergency lasts (and if omicron has anything to say about it, it will be awhile) will increase. CARES Act placement will rightly be seen as not just a furlough but as a bus ticket home. And we’ll just have to see whether a DOJ rulemaking wants to turn that shiny gift Biden left under the tree into a pair of underpants.

The New York Times, Biden Legal Team Decides Inmates Must Return to Prison After Covid Emergency (July 19, 2021)

The New York Times, Some Inmates Can Stay Confined at Home After Covid Emergency, Justice Dept. Says (December 22, 2021)

Sentencing Law and Policy, New OLC opinion memo concluding CARES Act “grants BOP discretion to permit prisoners in extended home confinement to remain there” (December 21, 2021)

DOJ, Statement by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland (December 21, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

A Silver Lining In The Omicron Ugliness? – Update for December 21, 2021

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

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES…

best210111So omicron is unlikely to respect that you’ve had COVID before or been vaccinated, and there’s no reason to believe that it’s milder than its predecessors (see below). What could possibly be good about that?

What’s good is that this may represent the last best chance for inmates to win COVID-based compassionate release motions under 18 USC § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). In the last 6 months, courts have often cited the questionable fact that if you’ve had COVID, you’re less likely to have it again or have it more seriously. What’s more, the judges are holding that being vaccinated reduces the risk to a level where compassionate release is unnecessary.

There’s a good argument to be made now that omicron has kicked the legs out from under both those arguments.

And this might be the last best chance to get a COVID compassionate release. Drugmakers Pfizer and Merck have both sought authorization for a COVID pill, and early tests show Pfizer’s pill cuts hospitalization and death from COVID by 90% and works against omicron.

Act-Now-300pxOnce those pills are approved and generally available – estimated to be about 90 days – it’s quite likely that the COVID compassionate release will be a thing of the past.

Macbeth might advise prisoners, “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly.”

Reuters, Pfizer says COVID-19 pill near 90% protective against hospitalization, death (December 14, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

It’s Getting Ugly Out There – Update for December 20, 2021

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

IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES… OR IT’S GOING TO BE

In its never-ending game of COVID whack-a-mole, the Federal Bureau of Prisons continues to tamp down outbreaks in one facility only to have the virus spike in another. Last week, inmate cases climbed 8% over the week before to 286, and staff numbers increased slightly from 237 to 242. Significantly, COVID is now present in 88% of BOP facilities, up six from last week’s 101-prison count.

christmasskull211220The BOP reported two more inmate deaths, one at Butner and another at FMC Fort Worth. Both were of people who had previously recovered from COVID, meaning that since March 2021, 56% of all inmate COVID deaths were people who had caught the virus once before but suffered lighter symptoms. So much for the trope that recovering from a previous bout of COVID protects a person from reinfection…

Alderson, USP Allenwood, Waseca, FCI Pollock, and Coleman Medium all reported ten or more inmate cases as of last Friday. Carswell and Rochester reported more than ten staff cases.

The BOP’s problem is COVID-19 delta. And now, here comes the COVID-19 omicron variant to disrupt the BOP even more.

Omicron is spreading so quickly that almost anything I write will be outdated by the time you read it. As of last Friday, New York State broke its previous record for new daily cases, set 11 months ago. “This is changing so quickly. The numbers are going up exponentially by day,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Friday. Yesterday, outgoing National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told CNN, “If Americans don’t take COVID-19 seriously, the country could see 1 million daily infections.”

Nationally, the number of confirmed omicron cases increased 97% from Friday to Saturday. Omicron is now spreading in 44 states. The US is currently averaging 121,707 new Covid-19 cases each day with 1,286 deaths each day. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CNN last Thursday, “I think we’re really just about to experience a viral blizzard. I think in the next three to eight weeks, we’re going to see millions of Americans are going to be infected with this virus, and that will be overlaid on top of Delta, and we’re not yet sure exactly how that’s going to work out.”

plague200406Yesterday, outgoing National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told CNN, “If Americans don’t take COVID-19 seriously, the country could see 1 million daily infections.”

Take it seriously? While 92% plus of federal workers have heeded the President’s order to get vaccinated, as of last Friday, only 68% of the BOP staff have done so. And how do you think the virus gets into otherwise locked-down facilities? The BOP – where every change of watch is a superspreader event.

There’s more bad news. An Oxford University study released last week found that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are much less effective at warding off COVID omicron than previous variants of the coronavirus, especially beyond 28 days after the second dose. of either vaccine. When omicron was introduced to those samples, scientists reported “a substantial fall” in the neutralizing antibodies that fight off COVID compared to the immune responses seen against earlier variants. The research paper noted that some vaccine recipients “failed to neutralize [the virus] at all.”

omicron211220

The Johnson & Johnson “vaccine produced virtually no antibody protection against omicron, “underlining the new strain’s ability to get around one pillar of the body’s defenses,” according to one of the researchers. A Dec 16 Imperial College of London study found that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron coronavirus variant is more than five times higher, with no sign of being milder than prior COVID variants.

If that’s not enough, last Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended adults take the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine over the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine after agency officials reported the rate of a severe but rare blood-clotting condition was higher than previously detected.

Expect more lockdowns, restrictions, and inmate deaths.

NPR, U.S. could see 1 million cases per day, warns departing NIH director Francis Collins (December 19, 2021)

NBC, ‘This Is a Whole New Animal:’ NY Reports Highest Single-Day Case Total of Pandemic (December 17, 2021)

CNN, The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and the Omicron variant (December 17, 2021)

Wanwisa Dejnirattisai, et al., Reduced neutralisation of SARS-COV-2 Omicron-B.1.1.529 variant by post-immunisation serum (Oxford University, December 13, 2021)

Bloomberg Quint, J&J Shot Loses Antibody Protection Against Omicron in Study (December 14, 2021)

Neil Ferguson, et al., Growth, population distribution and immune escape of Omicron in England (Imperial College – London, December 16, 2021)

Wall Street Journal, CDC Recommends Pfizer, Moderna Covid-19 Vaccines Over J&J’s (December 16, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

A Little Something from Santa – Update for December 17, 2021

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

STOCKING STUFFERS

Some odds and ends from last week…


free211217Free PACER?: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced a bipartisan bill to overhaul the PACER electronic court record system and make the downloading of filings free for the public. The Open Courts Act of 2021 will now go to the full Senate for its consideration, after the Committee adopted an amendment that provided for additional funding and addressed the judiciary’s concerns on technical issues.

The panel approved the measure on a voice vote without any recorded opposition. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House, which during the last Congress passed a version of the bill despite opposition from the judiciary over its costs. The House Judiciary Committee has yet to take up the latest measure.

S.2614, Open Courts Act of 2021

Reuters, Free PACER? Bill to end fees for online court records advances in Senate (December 9, 2021)

Marshals Detainees to USP Leavenworth: The United States Marshals Service will transfer inmates from CoreCivic’s Leavenworth Detention Center to the USP Leavenworth, according to a USMS spokeswoman.

The Marshals Service has contracted with CoreCivic in the past to house pretrial detainees, but the contract is not being renewed due to President Biden’s ban on use of private prisons. The contract expires at the end of the year.

Leavenworth Times, CoreCivic inmates to be transferred to USP (December  9, 2021)

The Court cares about you... but you still better file within 90 days.
The Court cares about you… but you still better file within 90 days.

Yes, SCOTUS is Back to Normal: A reader last week reported that some filers still are counting on the Supreme Court giving them 150 days to file for certiorari, a temporary measure enacted by COVID orders of March 19, 2020, and April 15, 2020. But on July 19, 2021, the Court announced that for any lower court judgment issued on that date or later, the time for filing would once again be 90 days.

This means that on this past Wednesday, December 15, 2021 – being 150 days from July 18 – is the last extended COVID deadline.

Supreme Court Order (July 19)

Fraud170406RDAP For Fun and Profit: Tony Tuam Pham, former managing partner of Michigan-based RDAP Law Consultants, LLC, was sentenced to 72 months last week for “coaching federal inmates and prospective inmates… how to lie to gain admission” into RDAP.

Tony pled guilty to claims that while he knew that many of his clients did not abuse alcohol or drugs and were ineligible for the RDAP, he coached them how to feign or exaggerate a drug or alcohol disorder anyway in order to lie their way into RDAP.

The US Attorney for Connecticut said Tony’s firm made over $2.6 million in client fees through the scheme.

US Attorney Press Release, Prison Consultant Sentenced to 6 Years for Defrauding BOP Substance Abuse Treatment Program (December 10, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

COVID – We Ain’t Seen Nuthin’ Yet? – Update for December 15, 2021

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

LADIES LEAD THE WAY IN COVID NUMBERS JUMP

Bureau of Prisons inmate COVID numbers have jumped 65% in the last two weeks to 243, fueled by a spike at FCI Waseca, where 125 female inmates were sick last Friday. That number has dropped by half as of yesterday, due in no small part to the BOP’s habit of declaring any inmate to be recovered after t days, no matter her condition as long as she has no fever.

COVIDheart200720The BOP’s technique, a bastardization of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, no doubt accounts for the fact that 56% of all inmate COVID deaths in the last nine months have been of prisoners who had been declared “recovered” at some point in the past 20 months by the agency. Some inmates have reported that they were declared “recovered” ten days after COVID was diagnosed after nothing more than a quick temperature check. Others have reported that temps weren’t even taken: after ten days (provided you were not dead), you were considered to be “recovered” and sent on your way.

Case in point: an inmate whose death was reported today had COVID last February. “On Tuesday, February 16, 2021, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, [he] was converted to a status of recovered, following the completion of medical isolation and presenting with no symptoms,” the BOP recounted in what has become its Newspeak for such situations.

Staff cases are stubbornly holding, at 229, within a rounding error of two weeks ago (232). The number of BOP facilities affected by COVID stands at 102, about the same as two weeks ago.

plague200406The BOP has logged four more inmate COVID deaths in the past two weeks. One of them was a Terminal Island inmate whose death last May 10 was only now attributed to COVID. Like more than 60% of inmates dying since March 2021, the inmate had recovered from COVID once before contracting it again and dying of it the second time around.

Nearly 93% of the federal workforce has now received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Avernment Executive magazine, more than 97% is in compliance with President Biden’s mandate by either getting a shot or requesting an exemption. But BOP compliance is lagging significantly: As of last Friday, only 68% of BOP employees and 72.3% of inmates have been vaccinated. With the Biden Administration admitting no one will be fired for not getting the jab, new employee vaccinations have slowed to a crawl.

The real COVID news in the last few weeks is not the delta variant, which is still responsible for current inmate cases. Instead, delta may be a tortoise next to the COVID-19 omicron variant. That variant – identified in South Africa for the first time on November 24, 2021 – has been found in 25 U.S. states in just 16 days. Officials of the UK and other European countries have predicted that omicron will become the dominant strain of COVID in their countries “within days, not weeks.” Cases in Europe are doubling “every two to three days.”

omicron211215Vaccines appear not to provide heightened resistance to omicron. An Oxford University study has found that two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines are substantially less effective at warding off omicron than previous coronavirus variants. The study tested blood samples of people 28 days after their second dose of either vaccine. When omicron was introduced to those samples, scientists reported “a substantial fall” in the neutralizing antibodies that fight off COVID compared to the immune responses seen against earlier variants. The research paper noted that some vaccine recipients “failed to neutralize [the virus] at all.”

The same is true for the J&J single-dose vax. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine produced virtually no antibody protection against the omicron coronavirus variant in a laboratory experiment, underlining the new strain’s ability to get around one pillar of the body’s defenses.

While there has been some speculation that omicron may not generally cause symptoms as severe as those caused by alpha and delta variants, no studies have yet confirmed that. In fact, Dr. Paul Burton, chief medical officer for Moderna, predicted yesterday there is a very real risk of getting a “dual infection” from both omicron and delta. He said: “In the near future these two viruses are going to coexist.”

deadcovid210914The UK logged its first omicron death on December 13, only two weeks after the nation recorded its first omicron case. Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, warned that “the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to set on one side and just recognize the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population.”

The silver lining to the coming 4th wave is this: with a COVID pill about 100 days away, this may be the last chance for prisoners to convince a court to grant a compassionate release based on COVID.

Mankato Free Press, Waseca prison has biggest COVID-19 outbreak in country (December 9, 2021)

BOP, Inmate Death at FCI Terminal Island (December 6, 2021)

BOP, Inmate Death at FCI Butner II (Medium) (December 14, 2021)

Government Executive, An inside look at the White House’s approach to implementing Biden’s mandate (December 10, 2021)

New York Times, South Africa detects a new variant, prompting new international travel restrictions (November 25, 2021)

CNBC, Omicron detected in Florida and Texas as it takes root in 25 U.S. states (December 10, 2021)

Washington Post, Omicron could soon become dominant in some European countries, officials predict (December 10, 2021)

Oxford University, Reduced neutralisation of SARS-COV-2 Omicron-B.1.1.529 variant by post-immunisation serum (December 13, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

Clemency: No One Here But Us Turkeys – Update for December 13, 2021

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

CLEMENCY CRITICISM RISES AS CHRISTMAS APPROACHES

Business Insider noted last week that “at this point in his presidency, Joe Biden has pardoned just two sentient beings: Peanut Butter and Jelly, 40-pound turkeys from Jasper, Indiana.”

turkey211122Not that prior presidents have done much better. Trump, by contrast, had pardoned three at this point in his presidency: two turkeys and one former sheriff. Clinton, Obama, and George W. Bush all waited until at least their second year in office before granting clemency to a human being.

That’s not because Biden can’t find candidates. About 17,000 petitions are pending, 2,000 of which have been filed in the past year.

Last week, Kevin Ring of FAMM, Sakira Cook of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and others met with White House staff to turn up the pressure. The meeting appears to have been frustrating for Ring. During an NPR roundtable last week on criminal justice reform, he noted that Biden has thus far even resisted clemency for CARES Act detainees. “To me, it’s a bellwether,” Ring said. “Because if the administration won’t address this and address it immediately, I don’t know what hope we can have that other things are going to get done.”

NPR noted that the BOP population has increased by about 5,000 since Biden took office.

Progressives in the House of Representatives, unhappy with a clemency system they say is too slow and deferential to prosecutors, last week proposed the creation of an independent panel they hope would depoliticize and expedite pardons.

clemency170206The “FIX Clemency Act,” HR 6234, was introduced last Friday by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri), Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass), and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). The bill calls for a nine-person board that would be responsible for reviewing petitions for clemency and issuing recommendations directly to the president. The recommendations would also be made public in an annual report to Congress. At least one member of the panel would be someone who was previously incarcerated.

That might work… if you could convince the President to appoint anyone to it. Last week, Law360 went after Biden for having yet to nominate anyone to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which is “keeping a potentially key player in justice reform on the sidelines, according to legal experts.”

The article points out that the USSC “hasn’t had a full roster of seven commissioners for nearly half a decade and has lacked the minimum four commissioners needed to pass amendments to its advisory federal sentencing guidelines since the beginning of 2019.” As a result, an agency whose job is to evaluate the criminal justice system’s operations and potentially drive reform has been taken off the field, Law 360 quoted Ohio State University law professor and sentencing expert Doug Berman as saying.

noquorum191016The USSC currently has only one voting member, Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who will have to leave next October, regardless of whether anyone has been named to the Commission or not.

During another NPR roundtable last week, NPR reporter Asma Khalid said of criminal justice reform, “You know, I cover the White House. And I will say, I don’t see this as really being an issue at the forefront, at least not from what I’ve heard publicly from them.”

The leadership vacuum is perhaps best reflected in rudderless Congressional action. Last September, the House of Representatives attached the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act to its version of the National Defense Authorization Act. The SAFE Act would shield national banks from federal criminal prosecution when working with state-licensed marijuana businesses, and was widely seen as opening the door to marijuana reform. Last Tuesday, the final NDAA bill text was released without SAFE Banking Act language.

Many would say Biden has not enjoyed a legislative honeymoon, even while owning both houses of Congress. Maybe it’s only a legislative cease-fire, but whatever it is, the 11-month armistice is unlikely to hold for more than another year until Republicans retake at least one chamber. And with Americans’ perception that crime in their local area is getting worse surging over the past year, there will be less interest in criminal justice reform as the mid-terms approach.

Business Insider, Despite promises, Biden has yet to issue a single pardon, leaving reformers depressed and thousands incarcerated (December 8, 2021)

NPR, Criminal justice advocates are pressing the Biden administration for more action (December 9, 2021)

HR 6234, FIX Clemency Act (December 9, 2021)

Press Release, Bush, Pressley, Jeffries Unveil FIX Clemency Act (December 10, 2021)

Law360.com, Biden’s Inaction Keeps Justice Reform Group Sidelined (December 5, 2021)

NPR, No One Has Been Granted Clemency During Biden Administration (December 9, 2021)

Cannabis Wire, SAFE Banking Scrapped from NDAA Despite Major Push (December 8, 2021)

Gallup poll, Local Crime Deemed Worse This Year by Americans (November 10, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root