LISA publishes a free newsletter intended for inmate subscribers in the Federal system and interested readers in the outside world.

Edited by Thomas L Root, MA JD

Vol 12, No 28

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Better Late Than Never

Retaliation? Not Us…

Tough Times For Prosecutors

Daily Caller Calls for Second Chances

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BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Incarcerated pro se litigants generally figure that just about any filing deadline can be extended. And judicial devices like the prison mailbox rule – that provides that a document is filed with a federal court on the day it is deposited in institution legal mail – contribute to the false sense of security that deadlines are more suggestions than mandates.

Mostly this is true. Courts are generally very indulgent of pro se filings that are a few days late. But a few deadlines are not easily overlooked by the courts. One is the deadline set for filing 28 USC 2255 motions, a deadline fixed by statute that courts cannot extend. Another is the deadline for filing a notice of appeal (NOA) under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure Rule 4.

Rule 4 sets varying deadlines for filing NOAs depending on whether the claim is civil or criminal and whether the litigation included a government party. There are other twists: anyone would think that a 2255 motion challenging a conviction is a criminal matter with a short-fuse 14-day deadline for filing an NOA. But it’s not: habeas corpus is a civil action, even when it challenges a criminal conviction, so a 2255 NOA would be subject to the 30-day filing deadline under FRAppP 4(a).

But it’s not. Because a habeas corpus necessarily includes the government (or one if its officials or employees) as an adverse party, FRAppP 4(a) extends the deadline for filing a2255 or 2241 NOA to 60 days.

The lax, prisoner-friendly deadlines of FRAppP 4(a) make it easy to forget that in appealing a compassionate release motion under 18 USC 3582(c)(1), a prisoner is appealing a holding in a criminal case. Thus, the NOA deadline is a miserly 14 days under FRAppP 4(b).

John Carter forgot. After his compassionate release was denied, he filed his NOA 21 days later, a week past the deadline. The government moved to dismiss his appeal.

FRAppP 4(b)(4) contains a safety valve for people like John. It permits a district court to grant an extension of not more than 30 days after the original NOA due date. But John never filed an extension request, so he seemed to be out of luck.

Not so, the 7^th Circuit said last week. Instead, while the Circuit “encourage[s] litigants to file a motion to present their best arguments for an extension,” it ruled that “considering the plain text of Rule 4(b)(4) (and recognizing that most untimely notices of appeal in criminal cases are filed by unsophisticated pro se prisoners)… if a notice of appeal is filed in a criminal case within Rule 4(b)(4)’s 30-day extension window, we should not dismiss the appeal until the district judge has made a finding on whether an extension of time is justified, even when the appellant has not filed a motion.”

The 7^th’s holding joins a consensus among six other circuits that filing within the 30-day window triggers the district court’s obligation to determine whether there is good cause or excusable neglect for late filing. Of course, unless the prisoner files a motion explaining why the NOA was late, it is pretty hard for the district judge to make a favorable finding.

The best idea is to file on time. The next best idea is to file a motion justifying why the NOA is late.

US v Carter, Case No 26-1406, 2026 USApp LEXIS 21212 (7th Cir. July 17, 2026)

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RETALIATION? NOT US…

The Marshall Project and NPR published the second report in their investigation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons grievance procedures last week, this one focused on alleged BOP retaliation against prisoners filing grievances complaining of BOP staff violence and sexual abuse.

A previous report found that only 1.75 pct of grievances filed in 2023 were granted. A majority were rejected for procedural errors or “administratively closed” for other reasons. The findings were based on a massive federal database, published by the Data Liberation Project, containing nearly 1 million federal prison grievance cases dating back to 2000.

Last week’s report observed that the dataset “only includes instances where incarcerated people were able to file a complaint at all. An unknown number of cases, especially those involving physical and sexual violence, go unreported, as the same officers accused of abuse can silence those trying to seek help, according to court records, lawsuits, and interviews with attorneys, incarcerated people, advocates and former bureau officials.”

A report by the Government Accountability Office last May found that fear of retaliation was a major impediment to reporting sexual abuse in federal prisons. Can’t be, BOP spokeswoman Randilee Giamusso said in response: Bureau policy prohibits retaliation of any kind, and the BOP reviews and investigates all allegations of abuse. She told NPR that the administrative remedy system – despite its under 2 pct approval rate – is “a safeguard intended to foster resolution within the system, not a barrier to court access.” She noted that “remedies related to sexual abuse can be submitted in other ways, such as “third-party reporting and [Prison Rape Elimination Act]-specific channels,” NPR reported.

The report also quoted current and former BOP prisoners with a different view. “The grievance system is a joke,” said ex-inmate Jimmy Hodge. “If you’re grieving over abuse, they’re going to harass you, they’re going to assault you, but you’re never going to get relief.”

It’s the same dilemma presented to anyone who faces violence in federal prison, the Report found: Try to file an administrative grievance and risk opening yourself up to retaliation — or stay quiet, endure the abuse, and forgo your chance to someday bring your case to court.

The fact that inmates must exhaust the grievance process before they can attempt to sue, NPR reported, gives prison staff a “chokehold over access to the courts,” according to former federal defender Colin Prince, now a civil rights attorney. “The guards functionally have power over whether a prisoner can sue them for their own misconduct,” he said. “The entire system is layer upon layer of bureaucratic insulation against accountability. It simply prevents prisoners from getting access to the courts.”

NPR, A guard punched him on camera. It was still nearly impossible for him to sue (July 13, 2026)

Data Liberation Project, Federal Inmate Complaints (July 6, 2024)

GAO, Improvements Needed to Prevent, Detect, and Address Sexual Abuse (Report No 26-107343, May 5, 2026)

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TOUGH TIMES FOR PROSECUTORS

The Dept of Justice is now requiring all Criminal Division Assistant US. Attorneys to maintain at least 25 open cases, “tightening the Trump administration’s grip on operational decisions previously left to US attorneys,” according to Bloomberg Law.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office communicated the informal “25 open matters” threshold to US attorneys in recent weeks, with an emphasis on driving up public safety and fraud statistics, four people familiar with the new policy told Bloomberg Law. A formal policy change is still under development, they said.

The new policy comes as DOJ brass try to dispel criticism over personnel departures by purporting to show that the Department is doing more with less.

DOJ has hemorrhaged thousands of veteran attorneys since Trump returned to office due to the President’s revenge campaigns, immigration crackdown, and increasingly overwhelming workloads, Daily Beast reported last week.

The government has lowered hiring standards and offered signing bonuses, despite historically being deluged with applications from lawyers who were happy to take a pay cut in exchange for the prestige of DOJ service.

“A one-size-fits-all policy is unworkable,” said Mark Yancey, a former senior official in the DOJ’s Executive Office for US Attorneys. “These things need to be worked at the district level by the US attorney.”

The quota runs the risk of prosecutors feeling pressured to bring cases with insufficient evidence just to hit their targets, Yancey told Bloomberg Law.

Last week, Blanche appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing on his nomination to be the next Attorney General.  In the runup to the hearing, a letter signed by 2,649 lawyers and legal professionals was delivered to the Senate urging rejection of Blanche as AG.

“No one in the history of the Justice Department has moved directly from representing a president in criminal proceedings to running the institution that prosecuted those cases,” said Traci Feit Love, Executive Director of Lawyers for Good Government. “Todd Blanche isn’t America’s Attorney General. He is Donald Trump’s personal fixer with a federal badge. The Senate has a constitutional obligation to say no.“

During his confirmation hearing, Blanche was braced by Sen Cory Booker (D-NJ) over BOP’s decision to place Ghislaine Maxwell (convicted of helping Jeffrey Epstein commit sex and trafficking offenses) in a camp, a move some have alleged was in exchange for her testifying that President Trump committed no sex offenses with Epstein. Blanche told Booker that Maxwell was “receiving threats,” which merited the transfer.

Booker argued that under BOP policies, an inmate who receives threats is moved to solitary confinement, not to a minimum-security prison camp. 

Blanche countered: “That’s not always true,” but Booker rejected that claim. “What is true is that someone who is accused of child sex trafficking under the Bureau of Prisons’ own policies is not put in a facility like this that seems clearly like a reward,” he said.

What the exchange failed to note that a May 2026 change in BOP designation policy I reported on last month grants the Attorney General the right to make any designation decision he or she pleases regardless of BOP policy. Expect that authority to be abused in favor of the Administration’s friends and to the detriment of its foes.

Questions over Blanche’s role in the DOJ “anti-weaponization” fund and in handling the Epstein files have left at least two Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee undecided. If just one votes ‘no,’ that could block the acting attorney general’s nomination from moving forward. A vote is likely later this month.

US Law Week, DOJ Sets Case Quotas for Line Prosecutors in Push to Boost Stats (July 13, 2026)

Daily Beast, Trump Justice Department Scrambles as Lawyers Flee in Droves (July 14, 2026)

Letter to Senators Grassley and Durbin, Senate Judiciary Committee (July 10, 2026)

The Hill, Booker: ‘Absurdity’ for Blanche to be concerned about Maxwell safety (July 16, 2026)

Christian Science Monitor, Blanche’s nomination for attorney general uncertain after hearing (July 17, 2026)

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DAILY CALLER CALLS FOR SECOND CHANCES

Conservative news website The Daily Caller last week called on Congress to pass legislation creating an “earned pathway to federal expungement.”

Former prosecutor Rachel Wright, National Policy Director for Right On Crime, argued, “President Donald Trump appointed Alice Marie Johnson as his pardon czar, he sent a clear message to the nation: Accountability and second chances are not mutually exclusive… Congress should advance legislation creating an earned pathway to federal expungement. The current system offers deserving individuals very few opportunities to move beyond their past mistakes, but by rewarding rehabilitation, we can create a more effective justice system and strengthen public safety.”

Wright wrote that nearly every state has adopted some form of expungement or automated record sealing, but federal law provides no course for doing so. She concluded that “if leaders across the political spectrum have concluded that perpetual punishment does little to enhance public safety, Washington should follow suit.”

The Daily Caller, It’s Time for Feds to Give Non-violent Offenders A Second Chance (July 10, 2026)

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