Tag Archives: covid-19

Maybe Our Last COVID-19 Post – Update for June 1, 2023

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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 SHARP POST-MORTEM OF BOP’S COVID RESPONSE

covidneverend220627COVID is largely dead and gone, having been demoted from pandemic to endemic, allowing for a sober review of the BOP’s response. Last week, Stat – a Boston Globe health science publication – ran a statistics-based study of how BOP managed the pandemic. The review wasn’t pretty.

The study found that

•    BOP facilities with high-risk patients didn’t prioritize them –

The study noted that FMC Devens – a medical center – did not vaccinate a single inmate for Covid-19 until Feb 11, 2021 — “almost two months after its counterparts across the federal Bureau of Prisons got started.” Other facilities, including FCI Sandstone and FCI La Tuna, a federal prison in Texas with one of the highest cumulative Covid-19 case rates, didn’t begin vaccinating until February 2021, either. Other facilities appeared to receive shots shortly after the FDA authorized them but only vaccinated a fraction of their residents.

•    Federal prisons weren’t testing residents to prevent outbreaks –

By 2021, tests were widespread and cheap. Despite this, BOP prisons weren’t “even coming close to the CDC’s March 2021 recommendations that prisons should consider, at minimum, testing a random sampling of 25% of their incarcerated population each week.”

•    The BOP’s own accounting of its early Covid response is incomplete –

The BOP lacks data showing how many tests it ran earlier in the pandemic. Records show, for example, that one medical center, MCFP Springfield, did not test any inmates until June 2020. A BOP spokesperson told STAT the BOP “administered COVID-19 tests to the inmate population as early as March 2020” but had no idea how many tests were administered or when.

• A slow booster rollout –

People housed in prisons were among the first eligible for COVID boosters because of their high COVID risk. While several BOP prisons did well mounting quick booster campaigns — FCI Bastrop, a 900-person prison, administered nearly 550 shots in just two months — “booster rates at several prisons were shockingly low, months after additional shots were authorized.”

crazynumbers200519Commentators have complained for several years that the BOP’s COVID stats were deeply flawed, especially because of the agency’s practice of deleting from the total number of inmates who caught COVID people who were subsequently released or transferred to another facility. To this day, no one outside the BOP has any idea of the extent of the pandemic from April 1, 2020, to May 11, 2023.  As of the last day COVID stats were reported, the BOP said it had 43,681 inmates who had recovered from COVID. At its peak, the BOP reported more than 55,000 cases.

The study represents a stark illustration of the poor quality of BOP health services treatment of inmates and sketchy reliability of its data.

Stat, ‘Worse than what we thought’: New data reveals deeper problems with the Bureau of Prisons’ Covid response (May 23, 2023)

DOJ Inspector General, COVID-19 Interactive Data (May 12, 2023) 

– Thomas L. Root

January 2022 Really Is January 2021 Redux – Update for January 11, 2022

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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.

COVID ROILS THE BOP

control200511BOP inmate COVID cases shot up last week at a rate not before seen since the pandemic started. On the last reporting day in 2021 (Thursday, Dec 30), 1,194 inmate COVID cases were reported. Yesterday, the number shot up to 3,761, a number not seen since January 21 of last year.

Yesterday’s number was 200% of the 21-day rolling average, the highest number recorded since the pandemic began.

Staff cases aren’t faring much better, up 141% in a week to 992 cases. COVID is now present in 127 facilities. Last week, the BOP reported two more inmate deaths, one at Beaumont and another at Lewisburg. The Lewisburg death occurred 11 months ago but only now has been recharacterized as COVID-related (a belated admission that either impresses you at the BOP’s candor or frightens you at the Bureau’s failure to properly identify the death at the time). However, the Beaumont death just occurred and – as with more than 55% of all deaths since March 1, 2021 – was the passing of someone whom the BOP had previously declared to be “recovered” from an earlier bout of COVID.

BOP vaccinations have slowed. Last week, 74,2% of inmates and 69.4% of staff had been vaccinated. Over the past month, those numbers rose 3.2% for inmates and 2.1% for staff, a slower rate than in November, when the monthly vax increase was 3.8% for inmates and 9.8% for staff.

A New York emergency room physician said last week that the current COVID omicron surge is different, both in who’s coming to the ER and how they’re being affected by the variant. “Like before, some [COVID patients] were really short of breath and needing oxygen. But for most, COVID seemed to topple a delicate balance of an underlying illness. It’s making people really sick in a different way.”

deadcovid210914Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Saturday that a new COVID variant being called “deltacron” has been identified in Cyprus. According to Leondios Kostrikis, a University of Cyprus professor and director of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology, said, “There are currently omicron and delta co-infections and we found this strain to be a combination of the two,” Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV on Friday. “We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or contagious or if it will prevail” over delta and omicron, he said.

As of yesterday, however, an Imperial College (UK) scientist cast doubt on the Cypriot report, saying “the so-called ‘Deltacron’ variant that was discovered on the island of Cyprus ‘looks to be quite clearly contamination’,” according to French news and current affairs public radio station RFI.

The BOP filed a motion last week to dissolve the preliminary injunction issued against FCC Lompoc in the class-action lawsuit over its management of the COVID pandemic. That injunction issued July 14, 2020, identifying inmates vulnerable to COVID and beginning the process of release to CARES Act home confinement. Citing the Prison Litigation Reform Act and a December 10th 9th Circuit decision in another case, Ahlman v. Barnes, the government is arguing that the PLRA automatically dissolves injunctions issued against prisons after 90 days.

The District Court has ordered briefing on the issue.

Questions about the BOP’s management of the virus at FCI Danbury may be heating up again. Danbury was the focus of the first successful class-action suit, Martinez v. Brooks, over BOP COVID management 18 months ago.

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy (both D-CT) and Rep Jahana Hayes (D-CT) last week sent a letter to the Attorney General, BOP Director and acting FCI Danbury warden over “highly disturbing” reports on COVID at the facility. The letter alleges that over half of the women at FCI Danbury camp tested positive on Dec 27, but weren’t isolated or initially told whether they had the virus. “These actions, if true, are shockingly reckless and contrary to BOP and CDC guidelines,” the letter said, and “endanger not only the women at the Camp, but also staff and the surrounding communities.”

As of January 10th, 61 of the 86 women at the Camp had COVID.

Inmate families were protesting last week outside of FPC Alderson, alleging high COVID transmission and inmate mistreatment at the West Virginia women’s facility. Organizers said they hope to spark a movement for prison reform nationwide for access to healthcare and basic needs.

Allegations included that the prison suffered from a lack of food, feminine products, commissary items, and hot water. Paul Petruzzi, an attorney representing ten Alderson inmates suggested the facility was not using CARES Act home confinement authority, a complaint inmates have been making for the last year.

crazynumbers200519Finally, a media report about a COVID outbreak at FCI Ray Brook in upstate New York included a note of interest to people who have ever doubted the accuracy of BOP COVID numbers. The Adirondack Daily Enterprise reported last week that last year, Ray Brook “had a COVID-19 outbreak which peaked at 130 inmates and 25 staff testing positive at one time. These numbers were only discovered weeks after the fact, when the corrections officer union for FCI Ray Brook – AFGE CPL33, Local 3882 – raised concerns that the BOP was not publicly reporting all of its COVID-19 data at the facility.”

Beaumont Enterprise, Third COVID-recovered senior inmate dies at Beaumont federal prison (January 5, 2022)

WNBC-TV, Omicron Variant Symptoms: Latest COVID ‘Making People Really Sick in a Different Way’ (January 4, 2022)

Bloomberg, Cyprus identifies ‘deltacron’, a variant that combines delta and omicron (January 8, 2022)

Santa Maria Times, Motion to dissolve federal prison COVID-19 injunction continued (January 4, 2022)

Adirondack Daily Enterprise, 40 inmates at FCI Ray Brook test positive for COVID-19 (January 8, 2022)

Martinez-Brooks v. Easter, 459 F. Supp.3d 411 (D. Conn. 2020)

WVNS-TV, Relatives of Alderson Federal Prison inmates allege mistreatment at peaceful protest (January 5, 2022)

News Times, Investigation into Danbury prison COVID conditions called for by delegation: ‘Shockingly reckless’ (January 4, 2022)

– 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

6th and 7th Circuits Pound Compassionate Release – Update for November 8, 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.

ROUGH WEEK FOR COMPASSIONATE RELEASE

A trio of cases last week suggest that at least two other federal circuits are joining the 11th in taking a dismissive view of compassionate release for COVID reasons.

ratchet211108Rachel Effect: About 22 years ago, John Bass – who ran a substantial drug-trafficking organization in Michigan for about a decade – began serving two concurrent life-without-parole sentences for murdering a hitman whom John had hired to kill his half-brother.

Yes, there is a certain amount of irony in murdering a hitman, even one you hired to hit someone else, but we’ll save that for another time.

In 2020, John filed a motion for sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i) – commonly called a motion for compassionate release – due to his frail medical condition and susceptibility to COVID. The district court granted his motion in January 2021, but John only enjoyed a few weeks of freedom before the government convinced the 6th Circuit to stay John’s release, sending John back to prison.

Last week, the Circuit held the district court abused its discretion is letting John out, and reversed the release permanently.

In its 2-1 decision, the 6th Circuit focused almost exclusively on the seriousness of John’s crime, disagreeing with the district court that 22 years in prison was “sufficient, but not greater than necessary to fulfill the purposes of his punishment.” The Circuit held that the crimes “were so severe that the Government sought the death penalty, and Bass’s own defense counsel assured the jury that Bass would never leave prison in an effort to avoid imposition of the death penalty.”

violent160620The district court justified its decision to release John by repeatedly emphasizing his rehabilitation and education. But, the 6th wrote, the district court “failed to square this lengthy rehabilitation analysis with the fact that Bass’s original sentence was life imprisonment without the possibility of release… In deciding Bass’s original sentence, the jury and the district court had already considered and rejected the possibility that he could be rehabilitated, or that his capacity for rehabilitation warranted the potential for an early release. This is not to say that compassionate release is never available for a defendant sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. We assume that there are circumstances that would warrant compassionate release for a defendant so sentenced. But the nature of Bass’s life sentence calls into question the district court’s decision to afford substantial weight to his efforts at rehabilitation after only 22 years in prison.”

The decision includes an interesting discussion of sentence disparity. The district court had ruled John’s sentence was too long compared to a co-conspirator who was sentenced in a state court for his crimes. The Circuit disagreed, holding that although “district courts may consider disparities among codefendants, the only disparities relevant are those among federal defendants on a national scale… By considering state court sentences, a district court actually is re-injecting the locality disparity that the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 was designed to guard against.”

[Editor’s note]: The whole “disparity” argument comes down to (1) fairness to the defendant, and (2) perception of the public. A defendant figures 10 years is 10 years, or life is life, whether it’s served in a federal prison or a state joint. Likewise for the public, there’s no difference in where the sentence is served: if one guy gets five years in state while another gets 20 in a federal prison, the public sees a disparity that tends to cause disrespect and lack of confidence in the judicial system. But implicit in the 6th Circuit holding is that the public understands and appreciates the nuances in the system, the “separate sovereigns” and all that claptrap.]

double211108I don’t usually mention dissents, but Judge Helene White wrote a notable one in this 2-1 case. She quite rightly suggested the majority was applying a different standard because it was the government appealing a compassionate release decision favorable to the defendant, instead of the usual disappointed prisoner appealing the district court’s siding with the government. Judge White admits that if she had been the district judge, she would not have granted John’s motion. “However,” she said, “the district court adequately explained its decision and did not abuse its discretion in concluding otherwise. We must apply the same rules on review without regard to whether the government or the inmate is aggrieved by the district court’s decision… We require district courts to provide only the most minimal explanation, and we must defer to their judgment in weighing the § 3553(a) factors and not substitute our own…”

It looks like a ratchet: if the district court denies a compassionate release motion, it has almost untrammeled discretion. If, however, it grants one, the circuit court will examine its decision with a magnifying glass and gimlet eye.

COVID Isn’t the Only Thing the Vaccine Prevents: In two other cases last week, the 6th and 7th Circuits held that a vaccinated inmate is disqualified from receiving a COVID-19 compassionate release. The 6th flatly held that “a defendant’s incarceration during the COVID-19 pandemic – when the defendant has access to the COVID-19 vaccine – does not present an extraordinary and compelling reason warranting a sentence reduction… The COVID-19 vaccine is available to inmates at Traylor’s facility, and Traylor has received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.”

Vaccinesticker211005The 7th Circuit also slammed the door on COVID-19 compassionate release, holding that “unless a prisoner can show they [sic] are unable to receive or benefit from a vaccine… the availability of a vaccine makes it impossible to conclude that the risk of COVID-19 is an ‘extraordinary and compelling’ reason for immediate release… Because the prisoner is vaccinated, he is ineligible for relief on remand.”

The fly in the ointment – as the death of General Colin Powell illustrates and the data all support – is that vaccine efficacy fades over time. No one knows for how long that time is, but the CDC has already recommended boosters, which could be. At the same time, vaccine effectiveness varies according to a person’s condition, with studies showing that it is less effective in obese people. With a new COVID delta subvariant just identified in the UK, not to mention the increasing occurrence of “breakthrough” infections among the vaccinated, the appellate courts may discover that the effects of the coronavirus is quite resistant to the “one-size-fits-all” vaccine approach.

United States v. Bass, Case No. 21-1094, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 32738 (6th Cir., Nov 3, 2021)

United States v. Traylor, Case No. 21-1565, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 32493 (6th Cir., Nov 1, 2021)

United States v. Kurzynowski, Case No. 20-3491, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 32966 (7th Cir., Nov 5, 2021)

National Geographic, An Offshoot of the Delta Variant is Rising in the UK (November 2, 2021)

The Wall Street Journal, Rising Covid-19 Breakthrough Cases Hinder Efforts to Control Virus (November 6, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

Mixed COVID News From the BOP – Update for October 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.

BOP OFFICIAL COVID NUMBERS DOWN, BUT THE NEWS ISN’T REALLY THAT GOOD

deadcovid210914As of yesterday, the Bureau of Prisons reported 261 inmate COVID cases, down 20% from a week before. Staff cases were only down 6%, to 455, and COVID was still in 113 of 122 BOP facilities. Inmate deaths now total at least 277, with another death of an inmate who – according to the BOP – had previously “recovered” according to CDC guidelines.

If the BOP is correct – and it always wants people to believe it is – 64% of all inmate deaths in the last seven months have been people who had COVID before and recovered. This is real-life data that refutes the government’s canard in compassionate release filings that if you have already had COVID, you won’t catch it again, and if you do, it won’t be any worse than the prior round.

Other unsurprising but bad news last week: the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that prisons had “consistently higher COVID-19 incidence and standardized mortality rates… relative to the overall US population in the first year of the pandemic. While COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates peaked in early 2021, with a decline since then, “the prison population had several times greater cumulative toll of COVID-19 relative to the overall US population.”

And more: Two real-world studies published last week confirmed that the immune protection offered by two doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine drops off after as little as two months. The studies, from Israel and Qatar, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, support arguments that even fully vaccinated people are not nearly as COVID bulletproof as early CDC prognostications made them out to be.

As of last Friday, 66.84% of inmates were vaccinated, up 1.24 points from a week before. But only 55.21% of staff had been vaxxed, and that number was up a paltry 0.46 points from the week before. 

Vaccinesticker211005According to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s survey earlier this year, 63% of the BOP staff reported already been vaccinated or were planning to get vaccinated as soon as possible, by the BOP or otherwise. However, nearly 20% said that they were not sure whether they would get vaccinated and another 18% said they did not plan to get vaccinated at all. But President Biden has ordered that all federal employees get vaccinated, and BOP Director Michael Carvajal issued an internal memo on September 29, 2021, implementing Biden’s order and specifying “you must be fully vaccinated by November 22, 2021, or you will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including removal from the federal service.”

Brandy Moore, a national union officer for Council of Prison Locals C-33, said there has been a lot of pushback and concern about the mandate for a variety of reasons, including “this was not a condition of employment, flu shots are not mandated, there is limited research on the long-term effects of the shots and inmates are not required to be vaccinated.” She told Government Executive, “The national union is very concerned about the amount of people that have actually said ‘I’m going to retire early, I’m going to quit, I’m going to go somewhere else. I don’t feel like this is a mandate that is constitutional…’ She said she estimated the BOP “may lose 10-20% of our staff,” which is “troublesome” because “staffing is our No. 1 concern” and has been since 2016.

John Butkovich, acting president for the union local representing 450 BOP workers at FCC Florence, told the Pueblo Chieftain that “he fears some correctional officers will quit when COVID-19 vaccinations become mandatory by November 22.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported last Tuesday on the death of Tammy Lamere, the eighth inmate to die from COVID-19 at FMC Carswell. One inmate told the paper that the “hospital unit at Carswell is ‘infected with COVID’.”

plague200406“We are all scared and worried that this is not under control and we are being taken one at a time,” the inmate told the newspaper via email. “We are in trouble here in Carswell… the most vulnerable… and we are dying.” Another said, “In the world, any human sick as she is and with all her medical issues would be hospitalized and supported and cared for,” Blake wrote in an email. “Here they live or don’t. But one thing is promised, you will suffer and be alone.”

BOP Press Release, Inmate Death at FMC Devens (October 5, 2021)

JAMA, COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality in Federal and State Prisons Compared With the US Population, April 5, 2020, to April 3, 2021 (October 6, 2021)

Ft Worth Star-Telegram, Woman’s death from COVID-19 at Fort Worth prison sparks fear of virus resurgence (October 5, 2021)

CNN, Studies confirm waning immunity from Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine (October 7, 2021)

Forbes, Federal Bureau Of Prisons Staff 63% Vaccinated But Union Digging In Heels On Mandate (October 6, 2021)

Government Executive, COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Could Exacerbate Understaffing in Federal Prisons, Union Warns (October 5, 2021)

Pueblo Chieftain, Here’s why morale is reportedly ‘horrific’ at the federal prison complex near Florence (September 30, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

BOP, COVID, Vaccine and Rumors – Update for September 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.

COVID’S GRIP

coviddelta210730Despite the BOP’s best efforts to quickly declare COVID-suffering inmates to be “recovered” – which the agency insists is done in conformance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines – the numbers continue to creep upward. As of yesterday, the BOP reported 627 inmates (up 13%) with COVID. The agency reported four more inmate deaths than a week ago. Staff numbers were holding at 562, down one from a week ago.

The BOP phenomenon of inmates dying of COVID weeks or months after “recovery” was noted last week by the Beaumont Enterprise. That is hardly surprising. Even if the BOP is carefully determining that “recovered” inmates have no symptoms 10 days after a positive COVID test – and a number of inmate reports suggest that the agency’s approach to “recovered” is fairly slapdash – that does not mean the inmate is “recovered.” Guidance released last week by the CDC states that this means simply that “isolation and precautions can be discontinued 10 days after symptom onset and after resolution of fever for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing medications, and with improvement of other symptoms.”

As many prisoners have found out, COVID may be a long-haul thing. A CDC study released last week reported that one in three people who survived COVID-19 may suffer from long COVID. The study found that 35% of survey responders reported at least one ongoing symptom of COVID-19 two months after the initial positive test. Fatigue was reported by 17% of those long COVID patients; difficulty breathing and loss of taste or smell were reported by 13%; and muscle or joint pain was reported by 11%.

COVIDvaccine201221As of last Friday, 61.6% of BOP inmates had been vaccinated. Staff vaccinations still lag at 54.0%, up only 4/10th of a point since last week. That may be changing, however. The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force last week set November 22 as the deadline for federal employees to get fully vaccinated under President Biden’s new mandate. By and large, the staff will either get vaxxed or quit (bad news for an already-understaffed BOP).

However, 24 Republican state attorneys general warned the Biden administration last week that their states would sue to block the federal employee mandate if the plan is not abandoned.

Forbes last week noted that the pandemic had not particularly influenced federal criminal sentences. It noted that in Fiscal Year 2020, federal judges cited the Covid-19 pandemic as a basis for lower sentences in just over just 2.5% of all cases at most. Forbes cited SDNY Judge J. Paul Oetken’s observation that time served during the pandemic is “essentially the equivalent of either time and a half or two times what would ordinarily be served,” and SDNY Judge Paul A. Engelmayer’s statement that “prison is supposed to be punishment, but it is not supposed to be trauma.”

unicorn210921That being the case, there is no truth to the rumor, reported regularly by inmate emails, that anyone – Biden, Congress, or even the shuttered Sentencing Commission – is considering an across-the-board sentence reduction for federal inmates because of the pandemic. You can expect that if that happens, President Biden will personally ride up to BOP headquarters on a pink unicorn to deliver the happy news.

Beaumont Enterprise, Second senior, COVID recovered federal inmate dies in Beaumont (September 15, 2021)

Los Angeles Times, 1 in 3 COVID-19 patients suffer from long COVID, a CDC study of Long Beach residents finds (September 16, 2021)

CDC, Ending Isolation and Precautions for People with COVID-19: Interim Guidance (September 14, 2021)

CDC, Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Adults Aged ≥18 Years — Long Beach, California, April 1–December 10, 2020 (September 17, 2021)

Government Executive, Coronavirus Roundup: A November 22 Deadline for Feds to Get Vaccinated; Booster Shot Clashes (September 14, 2021)

Columbus Dispatch, Ohio and 23 other state attorneys general tell Biden to drop vaccine mandate or be sued (September 17, 2021)

Forbes, The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Inadequate Response To Covid-19 (September 17, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

Biden Plans to Commute Some Drug Defendants, Vax BOP Staff – Update for September 14, 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.

SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

The morning after President Biden announced an executive order that all federal employees would get the COVID vaccine, the Bureau of Prisons numbers were stubbornly high. The number of sick inmates was up 5% from a week ago, standing at 553 (the highest count since March 15). More ominously, the number of sick staff jumped 12% to 563, nearly equal to the number of sick inmates, and the highest since April 20. COVID is present at 112 of 122 institutions, and the death toll notched up to at least 267 inmates.

deadcovid210914What remains puzzling is the BOP’s testing. The agency said it tested 127 people last week, a very low number of tests for the number of inmate cases the BOP is reporting.

Meanwhile, the number of vaccinated inmates hit the 60% mark, while the staff percentage barely moved, from 53.39% to 53.62%.

The staff number should change. On Thursday, Biden signed an Executive Order that, among other things, “require[s] COVID-19 vaccination for all Federal employees, subject to such exceptions as required by law.” The exceptions are for medical and religious reasons only, and (I already received one email asking this) the Order does not exempt BOP employees. Biden ordered each Federal agency to implement a program to require COVID-19 vaccination for all Federal employees and directed the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force to issue guidance within 7 days of the date of this order on agency implementation of this requirement for all agencies covered by this order.

The BOP announced two more COVID-19 deaths, one on September 4th at FCI Bennettsville and another from last November at FCI Talladega. The Talladega death was of a 29-year old who had contracted COVID on August 5, 2020, but who was declared “recovered” 12 days later.

At the 43-minute mark of last Friday morning’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jen Psaki had an exchange with an unidentified reporter:

Q: Jen, I’m hearing that the Bureau of Prisons issued a memo today telling approximately about 1,000 drug offenders how to apply for clemency. Have you — do you have anything on that?

MS. PSAKI: I would certainly point you to the Department of Justice. I would say that the President has been clear about his openness to using clemency powers, but I don’t — I wouldn’t say that’s an assessment of decisions made — and certainly targeting those toward nonviolent drug offenders. But I’d point you to the Department of Justice for any further details.

The riddle was solved yesterday when POLITICO reported that the Biden administration has begun asking people on CARES Act home confinement inmates to “formally submit commutation applications, criminal justice reform advocates and one inmate herself tell POLITICO.”

clemencyjack161229“Those who have been asked for the applications fall into a specific category,’ POLITICO reported, “drug offenders released to home under the pandemic relief bill known as the CARES Act with four years or less on their sentences. Neither the White House nor the Department of Justice clarified how many individuals have been asked for commutation applications or whether it would be expanding the universe of those it reached out to beyond that subset. But it did confirm that the president was beginning to take action.”

Business Insider published a piece on Saturday noting that “the Biden administration is considering granting commutations to those under home confinement who have federal drug charges and have less than four years left in their sentences. If enacted, that decision would only affect about 2,000 out of the 4,000 people currently under home confinement. To those that don’t fit the criteria, the administration will force them back to federal prison. For these individuals, the decision could be devastating to the progress they’ve made since emerging from behind bars. Sending [inmates] back to prison and hampering [their] progress would have the opposite effect of what our justice system purports to achieve.”

White House, Executive Order on Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees (September 9, 2021)

BOP, Inmate Death at FCI Talladega (September 10, 2021)

White House, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki (September 10, 2021)

Politico, Biden starts clemency process for inmates released due to Covid conditions (September 13, 2021)

Business Insider, Thousands of people who were released from prison due to the pandemic are now thriving with their families. But if Biden doesn’t act now, they will be cruelly sent back. (September 11, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

The Delta on Delta – Update for August 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.

RELENTLESS

COVID’s back… and we’ve got it.

Really, COVID never really left. But seven weeks ago, the BOP reported only 29 inmates and 132 staff with COVID, with the virus present in 70 facilities. As of yesterday, 532 inmates and 414 staff had tested positive for the virus at 106 institutions. Four more inmates had died, two last week.

delta210827In public health, of course, “delta” has lately referred to the novel coronavirus delta variant. In math, “delta” refers to the change in a variable (such as “∆x” meaning the change in the value of x). Why this high school math reminder? Because in the BOP, the ∆Covid∆ – that is the change in COVID-19 delta variant infection – is accelerating for both inmates and staff.

Last week, I heard from an inmate who said his institution was offering a special meal and a movie to inmates who agreed to get vaccinated. That was indirectly confirmed by Government Executive magazine, which reported last week that the BOP has “provided guidance about vaccine incentives for inmates to all of the agency’s chief executive officers in an effort to improve institution inmate vaccination rates.”

Currently, the BOP reports that 56.8% of inmates and 52.9% of staff are vaccinated. Despite the President’s announcement that unvaccinated federal employees generally will be treated like Typhoid Mary, the BOP staff rate has not budged a full percentage point in six weeks, while the inmate number has increased by over three. And as Salon reported last week, researchers found that BOP data show that “the infection rate among correctional officers [drives] the infection rate among incarcerated individuals.” The research shows “a three-way relationship between the infection rate of officers, incarcerated individuals and the communities around prisons.

Things are likely to get worse before they get better. Scientists are still unsure how many new infections are “breakthrough” cases in which vaccinated people are catching COVID anyway. Last week, the Administration announced that some people with a two-shot vaccination should get a booster. And while COVID-19 Delta is six times as virulent as old-fashioned COVID-19, yet another variant – COVID-19 Lambda – has just been identified.

coviddelta210827

Of course, continuing COVID also means continuing opportunities for compassionate release, despite the fact that vaccinations may make proving susceptibility to COVID more difficult. One thing is sure, for all the people who have been asking: Judges may consider that having the vaccine makes one less likely to get COVID, but to a judge, they consider someone who turned down the vaccine to be unworthy of a compassionate release.

Government Executive, Coronavirus Roundup: Booster Shot News; GSA Rethinks the Future of Work (August 17, 2021)

Salon.com, Correctional officers are driving the pandemic in prisons (August 19, 2021)

Bloomberg, The Vaccinated Are Worried and Scientists Don’t Have Answers (August 22, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

Biden Lowers the Boom on Unvaccinated Feds (Which Includes about Half of BOP Employees) – Update for August 2, 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.

JUST WHEN WE THOUGHT WE WERE DONE WITH COVID

The Delta variant of the coronavirus is gaining a foothold in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, just as it is in the rest of the country. As of yesterday, the U.S. was again charting 100,000 new cases a day. The BOP has gone from a low of 29 sick inmates three weeks ago (and only 108 staff sick a week ago), to last Friday’s numbers of 261 inmates and 151 staff down with COVID. The virus is present in 65% of all BOP facilities.

corona200313Yet only 52.5% of BOP employees and 55.3% of inmates have gotten vaccinated, according to BOP numbers. One prisoner complained last week, “Being in here with only half or less of the guards having gotten the vaccine is crazy. I feel like a trapped animal waiting for my turn to be killed.” Reuters reported last week that at FCI Oakdale – one of the first BOP facilities to suffer a COVID outbreak in March 2020 – “about 70% of its inmates have been vaccinated against the coronavirus – a rate more than double the 34% of Bureau of Prisons staffers there who have taken the shot, according to Ronald Morris, president of the Oakdale AFGE Union Local representing BOP workers.

“The low rate reflects how responses to COVID-19 – whether getting vaccinated or wearing face masks to slow transmission – has turned into a partisan issue in the United States,” Reuters reported, “with many Republicans rejecting both.”

That may be changing. Late last week, President Biden ordered all federal employees and contractors – including the BOP – to attest to their vaccination status or be subject to masking, social distancing, and COVID-19 testing requirements.

“Anyone who does not attest to being fully vaccinated will be required to wear a mask on the job no matter their geographic location, physically distance from all other employees and visitors, comply with a once- or twice-weekly screening testing requirement and be subject to restrictions on official travel,” the White House said in a fact sheet on the new policy, which it released Thursday afternoon.

Good luck enforcing that on the BOP staff.

Unconfirmed reports have at least one BOP facility announcing that by the end of the month, all unvaccinated inmates will be put in special unvaccinated units with limited recreation, no jobs, and social-distanced education. Now, it seems BOP employees are going to be feeling the effect of restrictions arising from their refusal to be vaccinated.

communications210802Meanwhile, in a master example of understatement, the Government Accountability Office last week issued a report on the BOP’s coronavirus response, complaining of inadequate COVID guidance communication to staff, and suggesting the agency should identify the practices that worked the best in order to prepare for future public health emergencies. “With about 46,000 positive inmate cases and 237 inmate deaths related to COVID-19 as of May 2021, and nearly 7,000 staff cases and four staff deaths related to COVID-19 as of May 2021, COVID-19 has highlighted key opportunities for BOP to better protect staff and inmates in response to the current pandemic and any future public health emergencies,” said GAO.

stupid160711The study said BOP staff reported confusion in how to implement BOP’s guidance. The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General surveyed BOP staff and reported that of the 59% of BOP employees responding to a survey thought BOP’s guidance was not clear. “Routinely evaluating how it communicates its COVID-19 guidance to staff, and modifying its approach as needed based on staff feedback, would help BOP ensure that staff can understand and effectively implement the protocols for COVID-19 and any future public health emergency,” the GAO said.

Forbes reported last week that over 400 inmates were transferred in July to FDC Miami, a facility that usually gets fewer than 100 inmates each month, many for court proceedings at the nearby federal courthouse. “The result of the inmate transfers has been 19 inmates associated with the transfer into FDC Miami have tested positive for COVID-19 and there is concern from BOP union representatives that this represents a huge challenge for both staff and inmates,” Eric Speirs, AFGE Local 501 President, told Forbes. “The decision to send this number of inmates in here over such a short period of time is reckless and adds to other pressures we already have here in Miami.”

Reuters, Vaccinated prisoners, unvaccinated guards illustrate Biden’s tricky road (July 29, 2021)

Federal News Network, Federal employees must attest to vaccination or submit to testing, per new Biden policy (July 29, 2021)

Government Executive, Coronavirus Roundup: Pandemic IG Asks for Expansion of Jurisdiction Again; GAO Looks at Contracting and Federal Prisons During COVID (July 30, 2021)

GAO, BOP Could Further Enhance its COVID-19 Response
by Capturing and Incorporating Lessons Learned (July 29, 2021)

Forbes, Bureau Of Prisons Transfers Hundreds Of Inmates Into Miami’s COVID-19 Hotbed (July 30, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root

BOP’s COVID Comeback – Update for July 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.

COVID’S BACK, AND THE BOP’S GOT IT

It wasn’t even three weeks ago that the BOP was doing a happy dance about having delivered the 200,000th shot of COVID vaccine. Only 29 inmates and 130 staff had the coronavirus, and only half of the institutions had a case.

coviddelta210730Then came the COVID-19 Delta variant. As of last night, 236 inmates and 145 staff at 79 facilities were sick. One out of four of those cases is at FCI Texarkana, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reportedly looking at why Delta has gained a foothold.

The Delta breakout comes amid increased concerns over slowed vaccination rates among prisons corrections staff.

The Crime Report last week said, “prison staff have refused the vaccine in vast numbers, leaving entire prison populations — and surrounding communities — at risk.” According to the report, only 48% of prison staff members nationwide had received at least one dose. As of last Friday, the BOP staff vax rate was 52.4%, slightly lower than the 54.8% inmate acceptance of the vaccine.

Unvaccinated officers travel between, bringing the virus with them, according to Anne Spaulding, an associate professor in epidemiology at Emory University. Sick officers can also cause staff shortages (already a serious BOP problem), which reduces programming, recreation, and visitation. “It’s going to affect the mental health of those incarcerated, who already have restricted lives,” Spaulding said.

stopvax210730Yesterday, President Biden issued a directive that requires about 2 million federal employees to disclose whether they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 or else submit to regular testing, as the highly transmissible Delta variant drives up new infections nationwide. That number would include the approximate 19,000 BOP employees who have so far refused the shot.

Federal workers and on-site contractors will have to attest to their vaccination status, the White House said. Those who don’t must wear masks at work regardless of their geographic location and get tested once or twice a week for Covid-19. Employees who don’t disclose being fully vaccinated also will be subject to work travel restrictions and must physically distance from colleagues and visitors, the administration said.

Given that numerous inmate reports I’ve gotten say that BOP staff widely ignore mask and distancing mandates, enforcement of this should be interesting to watch.

BOP COVID-19 statistics website (July 29)

KTBS-TV, Shreveport LA, Coronavirus cases rise at FCI Texarkana (July 19, 2021)

The Crime Report, Is Anti-Vax Movement Gaining Traction Among Corrections Staff? (July 12, 2021)

Politico, Biden rolls out aggressive plan to jump-start vaccination (July 29, 2021)

– Thomas L. Root