Tag Archives: myths

Bursting Bubbles, Destroying Fantasies – Update for September 6, 2024

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

MORE MYTHBUSTERS

mythbusters240816A few weeks ago, I wrote about some of the current popular myths being shared on what federal prisoners wryly refer to as “inmate.com” (which has nothing to do with that actual and rather strange website inmate.com).

Today, I collect a few more myths that deserve busting:

(1) Why is the BOP denying high and medium-recidivism inmates the use of their FSA credits?

Under 18 USC § 3624(g)(1), in order to use FSA credits, a prisoner must have a “minimum” or “low” recidivism risk or have “shown through the periodic risk reassessments a demonstrated recidivism risk reduction.” It is possible for a medium or high recidivism inmate to earn the right to spend FSA credits, but the statute [18 USC 3624(g)(1)(D)(ii)] is very specific about how difficult earning such a right would be.

recidivism240408The important point is that any changes to the FSA credit program —which lets prisoners earn credits to shorten sentences and permit more halfway house/home confinement—that would permit people with high and medium recidivism scores to use their credits would require both the House and the Senate to pass an amended First Step Act law, and the President would have to sign it. It simply is not going to happen this year.

And while we’re on it, why won’t those hidebound Federal Bureau of Prisons managers let prisoners with 18 USC § 924(c) gun charges have FSA credits? Simply enough, it’s because Congress deliberately excluded § 924(c) convictions from eligibility. The BOP’s got no power to change that.

One reader asked, “What about that change in the law that lets all § 924(c) convictions be changed into § 922(g) convictions?”

There is no such change either proposed or enacted, and no one (outside of my reader) has ever suggested such a thing. The public dislike of the concept of people using guns during drug or violent crimes would never permit such a change.

(2) Does H.R. 3019 expand FSA credit eligibility?

hr3019oversight240528Another reader asked whether more people would get FSA credits because of the passage of H.R. 3019. That bill is the Federal Prison Oversight Act, signed by the president last month. The FPOA is legislation that holds great promise for increasing BOP accountability, but it has nothing to do with FSA credits.

Congress seems content with the current situation: 63 different categories of offenses (comprising about half of all federal inmates) are ineligible for FSA credits.

(3)  How do I get home confinement at two-thirds of my sentence?

I still get complaints that the BOP is denying people who are 60 years old home confinement at their two-thirds date.

The two-thirds home confinement for 60+ people was the Elderly Offender Home Detention Program, authorized by the First Step Act. It was a pilot program and was authorized to run until September 30, 2023.

Congress set the expiration date in the First Step Act. The BOP has no right to waive or extend the expiration date. It’s up to Congress, and Congress hasn’t done a thing about it.

(4)  When does the new methamphetamine law go into effect?

There is no new meth law.

reeves230706About 18 months ago, a single district court in Mississippi ruled that the Guidelines enhancement for methamphetamine purity should not be applied because these days, just about all meth is high purity. The judge in question, however, was Carleton Reeves, who happens to be chairman of the Sentencing Commission, making the holding kind of a big deal.

The Guidelines enhancement is based on 21 USC § 841(b)(1)(A)(viii), which sets differing levels for pure meth and a “mixture… containing a detectable amount” of meth. Last June, the Commission released a study showing that meth purity is no longer a reasonable metric for enhancement.

The Commission may yet take up the enhancement, although it has not yet committed to do so. However, no real change can be effected until Congress changes the law. Congress has given no indication it is interested in doing so.

(5)  Why won’t the BOP give me all of the halfway house I’m entitled to under the Second Chance Act?

second170119I will be charging a nickel for each email I receive complaining that the BOP is denying someone all of the halfway house the prisoner is entitled to under the Second Chance Act. I will be able to retire as a millionaire sometime next week. On some nice Caribbean island that I bought out of petty cash.

The SCA guarantees you from zero to 12 months halfway house. That’s right. The BOP is not legally obligated to give you even one day of halfway house. Instead, 18 USC § 3624(c)(1) – which is where the SCA halfway house provision is found in the statute – requires the BOP only “to the extent practicable, ensure that a prisoner serving a term of imprisonment spends a portion of the final months of that term (not to exceed 12 months), under conditions that will afford that prisoner a reasonable opportunity to adjust to and prepare for the reentry of that prisoner into the community. Such conditions may include a community correctional facility.”

Notice the words “may include a community correctional facility.” Those words suggest that the conditions also may not include a community correctional facility. The “conditions” may be nothing more than prerelease classes. Nothing in § 3624(c)(1) requires that you get any halfway house.

If you have FSA credits that can be used for halfway house or home confinement, your right to such placement may be fixed by 18 USC § 3624(g)(2)(A) and (B), and § 3632(d)(4)(C). At least that’s what Woodley v. Warden held. Booker v. Bayless, a Northern District of West Virginia case decided two weeks ago, held that the BOP’s refusal to let an inmate spend FSA credits was part of a “broad statutory mandate not reviewable by a district court.”

fishaday230508(6)  Doesn’t Loper Bright mean that the BOP has to let people with § 924(c) charges use their FSA credits?

In June, SCOTUS ruled in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo that the 40-year-old Chevron deference doctrine would be no more. The Chevron doctrine holds that where a statute that governs a federal agency is ambiguous, a court must defer to any reasonable agency interpretation of the statute.

The Loper Bright is a fishing boat, the owners of which sued the Dept of Commerce for interpreting a statute to require the company to pay the salary of a DOC employee stationed on the boat to ensure the fishermen were taking an illegal catch. Loper Bright argued the DOC’s interpretation of the statute to permit DOC to charge them for monitoring exceeded agency authority.

Lower courts applied the Chevron doctrine, ruling that DOC’s interpretation of the ambiguous might not be right but was reasonable. SCOTUS, however, held that the Administrative Procedure Act (5 USC § 551 et seq) directs courts to “decide legal questions by applying their own judgment” and, therefore, “makes clear that agency interpretations of statutes — like agency interpretations of the Constitution — are not entitled to deference. Under the APA, it remains the responsibility of the court to decide whether the law means what the agency says.”

Loper Bright might be used against BOP interpretation of some of the statutes governing it. However, the current rumor that Loper Bright will force the BOP to give FSA credits to people with 18 USC § 924(c) convictions is utter nonsense. Convictions under § 924(c) are prohibited from getting credits by the First Step Act. That was Congress’s doing back in December 2018. Only an amendment to First Step passed by Congress and signed by the president, will fix that.

That’s all the cherished fantasies that just aren’t so for now. But new ones stack up in my inbox almost daily, so I know I will be writing one of these columns again soon.

– Thomas L. Root

November 1st Promises to be a Quiet Day – Update For August 16, 2024

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

MYTHBUSTERS

I might fairly be accused of trotting out the old “Mythbusters” trope every few months or so when I have nothing else to write about. But it’s not so.

mythbusters240816A loyal reader, himself a skilled jailhouse lawyer, urged me several months ago to revisit some of inmates’ most cherished rumors and myths. He was feeling a little beaten down by well-intended questions about how the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision invalidating the Chevron deference doctrine must mean that people with medium and high recidivism scores will now be able to earn First Step Act credits. (Hint: Loper Bright will affect FSA credits not at all).

Others are demanding to know how President Joe Biden’s signing of H.R. 3019 into law would do the same.

It has been a busy summer, however, and although I am getting the usual number of emails asking why the BOP won’t renew the elderly offender home detention program and when the new meth law takes effect, it took this email yesterday to force my hand:

PATRICIA PRISONER on 8/15/2024 at 10:32:58 AM wrote

i have a question concerning the FSA..IN NOVEMBER WHEN THE LAWS COME INTO EFFECT..WILL THE PPL WITH HIGH OR MEDIUM RECIDIVISM BE ABLE TO USE THEIR TIME CREDITS??DO ANYTHING CHANGE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PROGRAMED BUT WONT BE ABLE TO CHANGE THEIR STATUS TO A LOW???

Aarrgh! Another FSA credit question.

So here we go, by the numbers:

(1)    What will happen on November 1st?

On November 1st, two things will happen. First, Sentencing Guidelines amendments proposed last spring will go into effect, unless Congress blocks them (which it will not).

nothinghere190906The second is that BOP Director Colette Peters will ride up to the front gate of every BOP institution and give one lucky inmate a ride home on the back of her BOP Central Office unicorn.

Only one of the foregoing is true. And it ain’t the unicorn.

Unfortunately, the traditional November 1st date for the effectiveness of sentencing guidelines amendments has attained an almost mythical status on the inmate grapevine commonly known as “inmate.com.” But let’s remember this (covered in high school government class, probably on a day you skipped): The sentencing guidelines, like all government regulations, are NOT laws. Guidelines are written by the Sentencing Commission pursuant to authority granted by Congress. They are advisory only. A judge does not have to follow them. And this year, not a single Guidelines amendment will retroactively apply to people already sentenced. So, the amendments going into effect on November 1 have absolutely no effect on federal prisoners.

Congress has not passed any changes to the federal criminal laws this year. With only about 35 more days of legislative sessions this year for the House and 39 for the Senate (and with elections for all representatives and one-third of the senators), there is no chance that Congress will do anything to benefit federal prisoners.

The misperception that crime is rising is one of the bogeymen of this election cycle. No legislator’s going to vote for something that may benefit maybe 50,000 federal prisoners but gives his or her opponent an opening to argue that the incumbent voted to let dangerous criminals go free. As the politicians say, it’s bad optics.

(2) The BOP is not arbitrarily denying FSA credits to high and medium recidivism inmates.

Under 18 USC 3624(g)(1), in order to use FSA credits, a prisoner must have a “minimum” or “low” recidivism risk or “ha[ve] shown through the periodic risk reassessments a demonstrated recidivism risk reduction.” It is possible for a medium or high recidivism inmate to earn the right to spend FSA credits, but the statute (18 USC 3624(g)(1)(D)(ii)) is very specific about how difficult earning such a right would be.

recidivism240408The important point is that any changes to the FSA credit program – that lets prisoners earn credits to shorten sentences and permit more halfway house/home confinement – that would permit people with high and medium recidivism scores to use their credits, both the House and the Senate would have to pass an amended First Step Act law and the President would have to sign it. It simply is not going to happen this year.

And while we’re on it, why won’t the BOP let people with 18 USC § 924(c) gun charges have FSA credits? Simply enough, it’s because Congress deliberately excluded § 924(c) convictions from eligibility. The BOP’s got no power to change that.

(3) H.R. 3019 was indeed signed by the President, but it is the Federal Prison Oversight Act and has nothing to do with FSA credits.

In the 5½ years since the First Step Act was passed, no one has mounted any serious effort to change the FSA credits. Congress seems content that 63 different categories of offenses (comprising about half of all federal inmates) remain ineligible for FSA credits.

The FPOA is legislation that holds great promise for increasing BOP accountability, but it has nothing to do with the First Step Act in general or FSA credits in particular.

(4) Elderly Offender Home Detention Program has come and gone.

I still get complaints that the BOP is denying people who are 60 years old home confinement at their two-thirds date.

Of course it is. The two-thirds home confinement for 60+ people was the Elderly Offender Home Detention Program, authorized by the First Step Act. It was a pilot program, and was authorized to run until September 30, 2023. When it expired, I wrote about it.

The important point is that Congress set the expiration date. The BOP has no right to waive the expiration date or to extend it. It’s up to Congress, and Congress hasn’t done a thing about it.

(5) When does the new meth law go into effect?

meth240618What new meth law? About 18 months ago, a single district court in Mississippi ruled that the Guidelines enhancement for methamphetamine purity should not be applied because these days, just about all meth is high purity. The judge in question, however, was Carleton Reeves, who happens to be chairman of the Sentencing Commission, making the holding kind of a big deal.

The Guidelines enhancement is based on 21 USC § 841(b)(1)(A)(viii), which sets differing levels for pure meth and a “mixture… containing a detectable amount” of meth. Last June, the Commission released a study showing that meth purity is no longer a reasonable metric for enhancement. The Commission may yet take up the enhancement, although it has not yet committed to do so. However, no real change can be effected until Congress changes the law. Congress has given no indication it is interested in doing so.

(6)    A Basic Government lesson

We should all understand that a “congress” runs for two years. We are in the 118th Congress right now. It ends on January 2, 2025, The 119th Congress begins on January 3, 2025, and ends on January 3, 2027.

When a Congress ends, any bill that is pending but not passed disappears. The 119th Congress starts with a clean slate. This means that any bill currently pending (like marijuana reform, the EQUAL Act, First Step Act changes) will die.

Whether any criminal justice reform legislation makes it through the 119th Congress has a lot to do with who controls the House and Senate and who will be sitting in the White House. If one party ends up controlling all of it (especially the Democrats), some of what has been stalled – such as the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act and EQUAL Act — may have a real shot.

– Thomas L. Root

Seems Foolish To Have To Say This Again… – Update for January 7, 2022

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

BUT HOW ABOUT THE 65% BILL? DIDN’T THAT PASS?

easterbunny210916A month ago, I tried to bust the most pervasive inmate myths. Judging from my email, I failed miserably.

So I will take a day off from COVID in the BOP (now with 2,886 sick inmates – up a whopping 87% from a week ago – and 790 sick staff – up 48% in a week) and from following up on the soon-departed Michael Carvajal)… aNd I will try again.

Pay attention, kiddies. There is NO 65% bill, 65% law or 65% anything. There is NO proposal to cut federal sentences so that everyone will only serve 65%. There is NO bill, law, NO directive from Biden, and NO anything else that will give inmates extra time off because of the pandemic.

Nothing, nada, zilch, bupkis.

One guy complained after my last myth-busting post that I had “misrepresented” things because there is indeed a bill pending that would let nonviolent first-time offenders who are 45 years old get out at 50% of their sentences.

jacksonleebill220107

Yeah, I admit it. There is such a bill. Just like I have a picture of a unicorn. But the picture doesn’t make a unicorn any more real. And Rep Sheila Jackson Lee’s (D-TX) perennial tilt at the windmill doesn’t make the legislation a serious contender.

Yes, Jackson Lee has (once again) introduced a bill to dramatically cut federal sentences. She tossed it in the hopper last spring, an event that I did not bother to note at the time. Her Nonviolent Offender Relief Act of 2021 is a variation of the bill Jackson Lee has introduced in every Congress since 2003 (that’s nine times), except for the 116th (2019-2020). None has ever collected a single co-sponsor. The bill has always gone to the House Judiciary Committee, never to be seen again. Joe Biden is more likely to be Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024 than this bill is to ever see the light of day.

If you want to know what criminal justice reform legislation stands a chance in this Congress, look elsewhere.

H.R.132 – Federal Prison Bureau Nonviolent Offender Relief Act of 2021

– Thomas L. Root