Reflections on First Step Act Feedback submitted in 2019 – Still valid today! Go figure……….
June 14, 2019 To: IRC/FBOP/NIJ I am writing today with feedback as a citizen, stakeholder (FedCURE) and retired BOP employee with over 30 years of experience working directly with people incarcerated in the federal prison system. I respectfully request this feedback be considered and put on the record. My perspective is unique because I was involved with training BOP correctional programs staff, auditing facilities, writing policy and classifying thousands of people since the 1980’s under the various classification manuals and current risk assessment tool. I have worked in all types of prison units including pre-trial, witness security (WITSEC) min, low, medium and high. I currently testify around the country on federal prison issues and train federal defenders and judges on the BOP in general. One of my passions is federal prison reform. (CV attached) I am providing feedback to various areas under review by the IRC. My primary [...]
Monthly First Step Act Update (The Chaos Continues) 3/6/23
It did not take long for the BOP to issue a change notice to Program Statement 5410.01, FSA of 2018-Time Credits: For Implementation of 18 USC 3632 (d)(4). This change allows credits for people with detainers which was inevitable because of the litigation around the country because of the BOP’s creation of a restriction that was not in the law. It also allows non-citizens to be awarded credit provided they do not have a final order of deportation. This change resulted in a modification of the computer application and DSCC staff were reportedly working on a Sunday that weekend processing computations for immediate releases. I had anticipated the detainer change this for a while but not the non-citizen issue. Last week, I was informed some non-citizens who received time credits had their release date changed, then changed back again. The non-citizenship issue is a bit more nuanced since the BOP [...]
ALL GOOD THINGS COMES TO AN END
The big news this week was the announcement to the end of the national emergency for Covid-19 declared by President Biden over thirty-five months ago. The timing was interesting as it comes just over a month after the BOP updated their CARES ACT Home Detention criteria. While there was not much new in the criteria, it clarified the 25% & 50 % eligibility issue. From my perspective, the preceding memo from April 2021, was broad and inconsistently applied around the country regarding the eligibility timeframes. The previous memo listed the eligibility percentages of the “sentence;” while the updated memo distinctly lists the “statutory sentence”. Further, the memo also indicates a further distinction that the FSA/FTC (time credits) do not apply in the eligibility determination. I might look at these issues from a very micro perspective, but most facilities thus far have interpreted the eligibility as the entire sentence (ie:50 [...]
The Definition of Insanity!
As chaos and criminality plague the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the highest levels of management, only a politician could come up with the idea of building the fourth federal prison in a remote area in eastern Kentucky. Let us not forget that the federal prison population has decreased by over 60, 000 people from the historic highs in 2013. In addition, the agency is also having problems in the retention and hiring of eligible staff especially in rural areas despite offering attractive incentive bonuses funded by taxpayers. While these obvious reasons are blatant examples of poor judgment, there are more subtle ones that exist that should have every voter and even the purported community beneficiaries rallying in opposition to this false panacea. Flying under the radar of false promises is the fallacy that prisons are a boon to the local economy and job creation. There is a myriad [...]
Legislative Dysfunction at its Finest (Omnibus Bill)- Where’s the Equal Act parity?
VENTING.......... Aside from the typos and misinformation, this Omnibus is really a joke from a prison perspective! The Below information is a cut and pasted from Senate.gov and very unprofessional. First issue I see, “OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL The agreement includes $139,000.000 for the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and includes $4,000,000 for OIG to establish an interdisciplinary team dedicated to the oversight of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).” My question is are they really going to spend 4 million to establish a “team” when they have wasted millions on this alleged “Independent Review Committee” for the FSA? The DOJ-IG already has BOP prison oversight, and you see the effectiveness of that in the “Rape Club” and the countless other DOJ reports which have been ineffective. What about the Millions spent on "The Colson Task Force" - The swamp at its finest. The rest of this is bill is disturbing [...]
Two blogs is better than one -First Step Act Credits and a Bulger analysis
I've been working directly with federal prisoners for thirty-five years, twenty-three with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in classification and programs. It's hard to astound me on prison issues but reading the DOJ-IG Report on the Whitey Bulger Murder was the most non-adherence to policy and I honestly feel the BOP was complicit in the murder at the direction of the highest levels of BOP management. I could present a two-day seminar (case study) on this report which could educate justice professionals on correctional programs policy, medical policy and process issues and am a bit disappointed that the DOJ missed some important elements making the murder even more egregious. I testify around the country and often cite DOJ Reports, and while not even being halfway through this report, I feel compelled to publish a few select paragraphs that really took me back from a civil rights perspective. I do feel [...]