A FEW EASY STEPS TO REFORM THE BOP OVERNIGHT
While the title of this article sounds unrealistic, most of it is simply unchallengeable. I have often remarked how the BOP is a quasi-militaristic organization susceptible to rather quick change via the chain of command. While the formal guidance to broaden existing policy application is needed via changes notices, operations memoranda and policy updates, the BOP director can immediately issue internal guidance in the following areas that will have a profound impact on agency operations, accountability and somewhat restore a severely damaged perception within the justice community: Administrative Remedy Procedures : Allow informal and formal administrative remedies to be filed on the Trulinks computer system. Incarcerated people have had the ability to submit requests within this system for years, so allowing the process to be initiated electronically would ensure less obstruction, greater accountability and responsiveness. Did I mention the BOP still issues carbonated forms for the formal complaint process [...]
A Brief Micro-FTC Issue
DISCLAIMER: Do not waste your time reading this unless you're up to the minute on the federal time credits issue. In September, the IG released a report on BOP policy which emphasized one of my many rants over the past several years regarding the agency’s ineptitude to update policy and issue formal “Change Notices” and “Operations Memoranda” in accordance with their own Directives Management Manual. DOJ OIG Releases Evaluation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Policy Development Process (justice.gov) Let us not forget the Second Chance Act of 2007 made significant changes to the BOP policy on what was referred to at the time as “CCC Utilization”, aka RRC/Halfway houses and not a single change notice or policy update was ever released regarding these changes. Program Statement 7310.04, Community Corrections Center (CCC) Utilization and Transfer Procedure (bop.gov) I am not writing this blog about this specific subject and only [...]
FIRST STEP ACT- FTC CONFUSION INSIDE THE FENCES
The quiet on the Federal Time Credits (FTC) front ended just over a week ago when newly appointed Director Peters appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During her appearance she indicated the computer system integration to calculate FTC was finally implemented. This statement was a surprise for even the staff I spoke to inside because there had not been any internal notification memos at that point, however, things moved fast shortly after. As this week progressed, I received numerous emails from people inside that their release date had been adjusted a full year. One person was given a calculation showing they had earned over 400 days pre-release custody in addition to the time they were already awarded for early release to supervision. That settled the question that pre-release custody is no longer limited to twelve months as authorized in the Second Chance Act. On the negative side, I am [...]
A Deeper Dive into Federal Prison oversight!
Last week, Senator Jon Ossoff entered a major bi-partisan bill to overhaul federal prison oversight after a 10-month long investigation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It seemed like the ending to a perfect storm of prison reform measures beginning with the final implementation of the First Step Act, removal of the former federal prison director, Michael Carvajal and the selection of Colette Peters as his replacement who had the reputation as a prison “Reformer” within the Oregon Department of Corrections. First, we shouldn’t forget that Director Peters is not the first outside director selected to the reform the troubled agency. General Mark Inch abruptly resigned from the agency in 2018 in less than a year after his appointment partly because he was undermined by administrators within the dysfunctional agency culture. I met with General Inch early on in his tenure and he had told me he was going to [...]
The Never Ending Saga of The First Step Act, Federal Time Credits and some miscellaneous rants………
I have written a monthly blog for the Sentencing Partners Newsletter for the past two years and thought I'd start to post them to my blog. Below are the past few articles including some hot off the press info I just received from inside. Enjoy....... Federal Time Credits-Down Memory Lane A few months back, I indicated I was going to track the months that have elapsed since the BOP internally circulated a draft program statement entitled, “ First Step Act of 2018-Time Credits: Procedures for Implementation of USC 3632(d)(4). I am unaware of any specific changes that have evolved in the past thirty-two months aside from what I am experiencing firsthand within the trenches of the system. It is unfortunate I am not able to report that the SENTRY and INSIGHT systems have been fully integrated and operational. While the BOP is on record indicating an August first activation, I [...]
More First Step Act Nonsense
The BOP implementation of the FSA has come under criticism from the beginning but there is a great deal of blame to go around aside from the BOP which includes the DOJ, Independent Review Committee and the legislators who are the most culpable. While many things within the beltway are ill conceived, the FSA is a certain kind of special. The criticisms I had regarding the bill even prior to it becoming law have focused on its discriminatory and convoluted nature, over emphasis on magic programs and the reinvention of the wheel specifically when it comes to the PATTERN risk assessment and time credits. Since the beginning of federal incarceration, the federal government has never picked and chosen who did and did not receive good time. Going back to before the “old law” (pre-1987); all people earned both statutory and extra good time despite the nature of the offense. Even [...]