Tag Archives: ACA

The Short Rocket – Update for April 12, 2024

Leave a comment

rocket-312767We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

Today, some short odds to end the week…

Gun Cases Still Being Decided While Rahimi Await SCOTUS Decision: Holding that the government had not satisfied its burden to justify that 18 USC § 922(g)(1)’s prohibition on all felons possessing guns is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” an Eastern District of Michigan US District Court judge threw out a § 922(g) indictment against Ron Williams in late February.

Meanwhile, a Northern District of Illinois court has dismissed a § 922(g)(5) case against Heriberto Carbajal-Flores for possessing a gun while illegally or unlawfully being in the United States. Heriberto had had two prior motions denied, but the court reversed itself based on the 3rd Circuit’s Range v. AG and 7th Circuit’s Atkinson v. Garland decisions.

The government has appealed both cases.

United States v. Williams, Case No. 23-cr-20201, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30849 (ED Mich., Feb 22, 2024)

United States v. Carbajal-Flores, Case No. 20-cr-00613, 2024U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40974 (N.D.Ill. Mar 8, 2024)

BOP Proposed Social Media Ban Draws Fire: Two civil rights groups blasted the BOP last week for a proposed crackdown on imprisoned peoples’ access to social media—including a possible ban on accounts run by family on the outside. The ACLU and Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University said the proposed procedures would violate the Constitution.

socialmedia240412Inmates’ rights advocacy groups say that the rule would restrict the 1st Amendment rights of not only prisoners but also people not in BOP custody. Ebony Underwood, whose nonprofit We Got Us Now works with the children of incarcerated parents, called the social media proposal “archaic and so inhumane.”

Knight wrote in reply comments:

For the nearly 2 million people who are incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons, maintaining connection with loved ones and communities is associated with better physical and mental health outcomes, reduced recidivism, and successful reentry into society. Social media is increasingly becoming an important part of that connection. As one formerly incarcerated journalist recently recounted, using social media through his wife allowed him to pursue a writing career, stay in touch with his community, and give him hope of reintegration upon release.

The public comment period closed on April 1. The federal register website shows that the proposed rule received 219 comments, though only 22 have been posted online.

The Appeal, Civil Rights Groups Decry Proposed Federal Prison Social Media Crackdown (April 4, 2024)

Techspot, US prison system proposes total social media ban for inmates, sparking First Amendment concerns (April 2, 2024)

Knight 1st Amendment Institute, Comment re: BOP social media rules (April 1, 2024)

BOP Dumps ACA: After being blasted by the DOJ Inspector General last November for its conflict-riddled relationship with the American Correctional Association, the BOP last week announced that it would not renew its $2.75 million contract with the accreditation organization.

ACAaward240307The ACA, which accredits prisons, first started accrediting BOP facilities in 1980. However, the Bureau said on Monday it has decided to part ways. However, a report issued by the Dept of Justice Inspector General found that instead of providing an independent evaluation of BOP facilities, the ACA “instead relied on the prisons’ own internal reports during reaccreditation reviews.” In other words, as the DOJ put it, “it appears the BOP is, in effect, paying ACA to affirm the BOP’s own findings.”

In an announcement last week, the BOP said it “has decided to explore other options to ensure continued improvement and innovation in correctional standards for the well-being of adults in custody and the FBOP’s workforce. The FBOP remains committed to a rigorous assessment of its policies and practices involving all levels of leadership to inform continuous organizational improvement.”

Law360, BOP Drops Accreditation Org After IG, Sens. Raise Concerns (April 1, 2024)

DOJ Office of Inspector General, Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contract Awarded to the American Correctional Association (Nov 2023)

– Thomas L. Root

Senators Denounce BOP-ACA ‘Pas de Deux’ (Which Is A More Refined Way To Describe a ‘Circle Jerk’) – Update for March 7, 2024

Leave a comment

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

THREE SENATORS DEMAND BOP CUT TIES WITH ACA

I agonized over this story. Not because of the content, which is as unsurprising as it is deplorable. But rather, as I asked my wife of 45 years, is it appropriate to use the term “circle jerk” in the LISA Foundation posts?

circlejerk240307I mean, the term really fits. The Federal Bureau of Prisons pays the American Correctional Association to inspect its facilities. Well, not really. The BOP pays ACA to give glowing accreditations to its facilities. As a report issued by the Dept of Justice Inspector General last November found, the BOP doesn’t really want its prisons inspected by outsiders, even friendly outsiders like ACA inspectors. Rather, the BOP is quite happy to inspect itself and then report the results to the ACA, which issues its seal of approval based on the BOP’s self-evaluation.

Sort of like giving yourself a physical, telling the doctor the results, and having the physician issue a clean bill of health based on your evaluation. Or a highly choreographed pas de deux. Or maybe… yeah, sort of like a circle jerk. The BOP pays the ACA, the ACA lets the BOP OK itself, the BOP trumpets its accreditation to the public, and pays the ACA.

As my wife says, “You couldn’t make this s*** up.” A little salty, but a spot-on observation.

wobegon240307The IG’s report said that instead of providing an independent evaluation of BOP, the ACA “relied on the prisons’ own internal reports during reaccreditation reviews.” In other words, as the DOJ put it, “it appears the BOP is, in effect, paying ACA to affirm the BOP’s own findings.”

Last week, three US senators wrote to the Attorney General and BOP Director Colette Peters complaining that BOP reliance on the ACA for accreditation “has proven to be little more than a rubber stamp, and the BOP’s contract with the ACA has been a waste of taxpayer dollars. We urge the BOP not to renew its ACA accreditation contract when it expires.” The ACA contract, covering all of the BOP’s 122 facilities, is worth $2.75 million.

ACAaward240307The senators, Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey (both D-MA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), complain that while “the ACA claims that ‘[a]ccreditation is awarded to the ‘best of the best’ in the corrections field,’ in practice, ACA accreditation is awarded to virtually every facility that pays the accreditation fee.” The letter argues that “given the critical need for meaningful oversight of BOP facilities and the ACA’s complete failure to provide it, the BOP should not renew its ACA contract after it ends in March 2024. The ACA’s accreditation system is ineffective at best, and at worst misleads the public to believe that a failing facility’s operations are adequate. We urge you to identify alternative means of oversight that involve genuinely independent, rigorous audits of each BOP facility.”

They are too polite to call it one big circle jerk. Which it is.

The Appeal, Nonprofit Prison Accreditor Perpetuates Abuse And Neglect, Senators Say (February 29, 2024)

Letter from Senator Warren et al. to Atty General and BOP Director (February 28, 2024)

Dept of Justice OIG, Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contract Awarded to the American Correctional Association (November 2023)

– Thomas L. Root

An “AIC” Would Get More Prison Time For Doing What the BOP and ACA Did – Update for December 21, 2023

Leave a comment

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

INSPECTOR GENERAL UNMASKS BOP-ACA INSPECTION SCAM

Adults in Custody (that’s “prisoners” in normal-speak and so far, the new label is about all the progress BOP Director Colette Peters has made in 17 months at the helm) are fortunate that the institutions in which they’re housed are regularly audited by the American Correctional Association to ensure that they continue to meet that organization’s uncompromising high standards.

badcheck231221Of course. And the check’s in the mail, too…

A report issued by the Dept of Justice Inspector General last month found that instead of providing an independent evaluation of Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, the ACA “instead relied on the prisons’ own internal reports during reaccreditation reviews.” In other words, as the DOJ put it, “it appears the BOP is, in effect, paying ACA to affirm the BOP’s own findings.”

The BOP awarded a $2.75 million contract to the ACA in 2018 to obtain accreditation and reaccreditation for BOP facilities. Five years into the agreement, the DOJ audit was intended to evaluate “the value the BOP receives through ACA accreditation for its prisons” and “how the BOP uses ACA’s accreditation to improve BOP standards for health, safety, and security of inmates and staff; and (3) the BOP’s contract administration and ACA’s performance and compliance with terms, conditions, laws, and regulations applicable to the contract.

nothingtosee230313The IG’s report found that “[a]lthough the contract requires ACA to perform its accreditation and reaccreditation in accordance with ACA’s policies, manuals, and procedures, current BOP and ACA officials… agreed that ACA would only perform independent reviews of BOP facilities as provided for in ACA policy during initial accreditation. For reaccreditation reviews, which was most of ACA’s work under the contract, the BOP and ACA agreed that ACA would rely on the BOP’s internal program review reports. As a result, it appears the BOP is, in effect, paying ACA to affirm the BOP’s own findings.”

The auditors also wrote they “did not identify instances where the BOP used ACA’s accreditation process to improve BOP standards for health, safety, and security of inmates and staff.” Of course not. If the BOP did a self-audit that the ACA signed off on, why bother to improve? Remember that only three months ago, NPR reported that the BOP claimed on its website that its medical centers were accredited by the Joint Commission, which accredits the vast majority of US hospitals, when in fact the certification had lapsed two years before.

NPR’s investigation – showing that federal prisoners die from treatable conditions that the BOP does not diagnose or treat in a timely way – was behind a call last week from Sens Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) for better BOP healthcare.

drquack191111“It is deeply upsetting that families are mourning the loss of their loved ones because they were not afforded the proper medical care they deserved while incarcerated,” Durbin, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told NPR. “BOP must immediately prioritize correcting the ineffective, harmful standards and procedures used to determine when an incarcerated person will be seen by medical professionals.”

Grassley, also a member of the Judiciary Committee, agreed. “BOP needs to be held responsible for this failure and take action to raise its standards.”

In response, a BOP spokesperson told NPR the Bureau “‘appreciates the Senators’ focus on this important issue’ and is committed to continue working with them on oversight.”

DOJ Office of Inspector General, Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Contract Awarded to the American Correctional Association (November 16, 2023)

Lincoln, Nebraska, Journal-Star, Federal audit blasts nonprofit responsible for accrediting Nebraska’s prisons (December 10, 2023)

NPR, Lawmakers push for federal prison oversight after reports of inadequate medical care (December 12, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root