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

A SHORT ROCKET FROM THE BOP

A few news briefs from the federal prison system…

You’re Not Dead, But You May Wish You Were: Last week, new Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Bureau of Prisons to implement what will likely be harsher conditions for the 37 inmates whose death penalties were commuted by President Biden, ordering the agency to adjust their prison conditions so they are “consistent with the security risks those inmates present.”

Because the BOP already places inmates in facilities consistent with the “security risks those inmates present,” the order is undoubtedly a dog whistle directing the BOP to place the prisoners “in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose,” the punitive language in President Trump’s Executive Order on the death penalty.

Welcome, New Detainees: Government Executive reports that the BOP will be housing thousands of immigrants detained by the Homeland Security at prisons in detention centers in Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, as well as at USP Atlanta, USP Leavenworth and FCI Berlin. The immigrants will be held in BOP facilities so the agency can “continue to support our law enforcement partners to fulfill the administration’s policy objectives,” Scott Taylor, an agency spokesman, said.

The Trump administration briefly held ICE detainees in federal prisons in 2018 but stopped after the American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued to force the BOP to give the detainees access to counsel and outside communications.

“Bureau employees questioned the morality and legality of their new responsibilities and said their prior experience housing detainees in Trump’s first term was a ‘disaster,’” Govt Executive reported. “Our mandate is federal pretrial or sentenced inmates,” a Miami-based CO whose facility is expecting as many as 500 detainees. “What legal jurisdiction do I have with someone [detained by] ICE?”

Another Week, Another TRO: Last week, we reported that a Massachusetts federal court had issued a temporary restraining order against the BOP’s announced plan to transfer all biological men to men’s prisons and biological women to women’s facilities. We noted that a similar suit to block the transfers had been brought by three unnamed transgender men-to-women prisoners in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth (a respected and crusty jurist who has been on the federal bench since President Reagan appointed him 37 years ago) issued a temporary restraining order last week that “temporarily enjoined and restrained” the Dept of Justice” from implementing Sections 4(a) and 4(c) of Executive Order 14168, pending further Order of this Court” and required the BOP to “maintain and continue the plaintiffs’ housing status and medical care as they existed immediately prior to January 20, 2025.”

The Order said that three transgender prisoners who brought a suit to stop the order had “straightforwardly demonstrated that irreparable harm will follow” if their request for a restraining order were to be denied.

Clothes Make The Transgender Man-to-Woman: Meanwhile, a BOP policy issued early last week requiring transgender men-to-women in male prisons to hand over any female-identifying clothing and personal care products is “on hold at at least one federal prison in Texas,” according to NPR.

NPR had obtained a copy of a February 3 clothing policy – that a BOP employee said had been issued nationwide – directing inmates at FCI Seagoville, a low-security men’s institution near Dallas to turn in such items. But later in the week, NPR said, transgender inmates “whose clothes were taken away later learned the items would be returned” and “[m]ost had their things again as of Friday, according to [an unidentified] inmate who spoke to NPR.”

NPR said its BOP employee source reported that “prison officials are being told that clear directives on policy changes involving trans inmates will come directly” from DOJ and for now plans are “on hold.”

Politico, Pam Bondi issued a flurry of orders on Day 1 as Trump’s attorney general (February 5, 2025)

Government Executive, Federal prisons to house ICE detainees as Trump furthers immigration crackdown (February 7, 2025)

New York Times, Judge Blocks Trump Effort to Move Trans Women to Men’s Prisons (February 4, 2025)

Order, Doe v. McHenry, ECF 23, Case No. 1:25-cv-286 (DC, February 4, 2025)

NPR, ‘Everything is changing every minute’: New prison rules for trans women on hold (February 7, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root