I just returned from the annual U.S. Sentencing Commission seminar in Los Angeles. It is the only forum I am aware of in which the BOP presentation is open to the public. While it is usually a superficial session, this one lacked the technical policy information of past seminars and was more of a public [...]
My rants are usually triggered from media stories written as if the subject matter is some profound eureka moment on an issue BOP insiders have lamented for decades. Enter the AP story from November 14, “ Workers at federal prisons are committing some of the crimes”. Workers at federal prisons are committing some of the [...]
I started to write this rant in late May but never finished my thoughts as they became a bit too judgmental as well as complicated encompassing two different reform themes. I set it aside until another trigger (i.e.: idiocy) would force it to the surface. Yesterday I was reading an article about the Biden administration’s [...]
The Forgotten I took a few days to process the list of names who received presidential pardons and/or commutations. My wife is a clinical social worker and reminds me often how the brain resets and even solves problems while a person is asleep. I woke up last night thinking about the list and have [...]
I only blog when something inspires me to go on a rant for a Federal justice related issue. I have a pulse on the Federal prison system and like to document my thoughts for an “I told you so moment” when these inspirations occur. So here we go….. Several of my previous rants were focused [...]
With the decision in the Northern District of Ohio yesterday, it appears the BOP is in freefall. I’ve written about the root causes of inferior BOP leadership for many years as well as the agency’s lack of transparency and accountability. While the BOP needs to own their “shoot, ready, aim” shenanigans, let us not forget [...]
I always wonder who writes these crime bills and the First Step Act (FSA) is no different. After reading the flavor of the week, I just need to remind myself there is no reason to get upset because it's just more beltway dysfunction. While the FSA is actually worse than most of the recent legislation, [...]
I recently came to the realization the best way to take this blog was to periodically cover the lessons learned during my work in the trenches of the Federal justice system as an advocate, consultant and reform freak. Going forward, I will focus on prison and legislative reforms while keeping an eye on what I [...]
I felt it was time for a 2017 blog and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates’s remarks at Harvard’s Law School were the catalyst to set me in motion. https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/deputy-attorney-general-sally-q-yates-delivers-remarks-harvard-law-school-sentencing-and My mantra has consistently been that many Federal prison reform initiatives can be accomplished under the existing policy framework through leadership, accountability and thinking outside the [...]
I wrote this blog at the request of Jeff Grant over at Prisonist.org. I thought I would re-post it on my site because I’m seeing more and more people getting into the consulting arena and it’s not just the white collar people who fall prey to consultants. The bottom line is beware when someone directly [...]