We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
BOP RELEASES THOUSANDS (FROM SOMEWHERE) LAST FRIDAY
The Dept. of Justice crowed last Friday that “over 3,100 federal prison inmates will be released from the BOP’s custody as a result of the increase in good conduct time under the [First Step] Act.” You’d be forgiven for believing that it had all been DOJ’s idea, and that inmates streamed through the gates of federal prisons, straight from the cell to freedom.
But perhaps First Step merely brought forth a mouse. The problem, according to what I heard from a number of people at different institutions, no one seemed to be leaving. With over 7,700 people on the LISA email list, I expected over 100 notifications from the BOP that inmates on the subscription list no longer had Corrlinks email accounts, a notice commonly received whenever someone is released and his or her Corrlinks account is closed. Instead, I got only 17.
FAMM president Kevin Ring told the Wall Street Journal that most of the 3,100 inmates released Friday were among the 8,300 BOP inmates already in halfway houses or the 2,200 on home confinement. Thus, the effect of the mass release, while reducing BOP population overall, was not noticeable at institutions. Reason magazine confirmed this, reporting today that “Most were released from halfway houses or home confinement where they were finishing out their sentences..”
Plus, as Mother Jones magazine complained last week, not all of last Friday’s releasees got to go home. “Roughly a quarter of them are not United States citizens,” the magazine said, “and many will instead be sent straight to immigration detention to face deportation proceedings, which could take years.” As it turns out, 900 released inmates were transferred to ICE or state authorities for deportation after being convicted of felonies, a result which predictably enough shocks Mother Jones but has been the law for 102 years, since the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1917.
Most troubling are the numerous reports I have gotten that the BOP has not completed the recalculation of good time for most of the 151,000 inmates still in institutions. One source reported that the BOP is processing each inmate’s new time manually, and that it is able to complete 5,000 a month. The reason for the glacial pace of recalculations is unclear, but it is hard to avoid noting that the BOP has had seven months to prepare for award of the additional good time.
How the agency is unable, after seven months of preparation, to automate recalculation through a rather simple computer algorithm is puzzling.
Dept of Justice, Department Of Justice Announces the Release of 3,100 Inmates Under First Step Act, Publishes Risk And Needs Assessment System (July 19)
Wall Street Journal, Justice Department Set to Free 3,000 Prisoners as Criminal-Justice Overhaul Takes Hold (July 19)
Bureau of Prisons, Population Statistics (July 18)
Mother Jones, Congress Helped Thousands of People Get Out of Prison Early. But Many of Them Will Probably Be Deported Right Away (July 19)
Reason.com,Tucker Carlson’s Unhinged Rant Against Prison Reform Makes Us All Dumber (July 23)
USA Today, Federal government releases more than 2,200 people from prison as First Step Act kicks in (July 19)
– Thomas L. Root