Disappointed in LA

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 [...]

By |2023-09-08T07:30:36-04:00September 8th, 2023|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform, First Step Act|Comments Off on Disappointed in LA

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 [...]

By |2022-06-02T10:20:31-04:00June 2nd, 2022|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform|Comments Off on More First Step Act Nonsense

Federal Good Time Credits ( SH#@s Getting Real)

Federal Time Credits (FTC) Questions I have for the DOJ/BOP: Are people only being awarded for completing an evidenced based recidivism reduction program (EBRRP) IF a “need” was identified and keyed into that area on the computerized assessment? Are people awarded the FTC if their crime of conviction is NOT on the list of the [...]

By |2022-01-27T23:57:55-04:00January 13th, 2022|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform|Comments Off on Federal Good Time Credits ( SH#@s Getting Real)

The Forgotten (Another story in the never ending rants on Federal prison reform)

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 [...]

By |2021-01-23T18:20:55-04:00January 23rd, 2021|Uncategorized|Comments Off on The Forgotten (Another story in the never ending rants on Federal prison reform)

Lessons learned

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 [...]

By |2017-06-27T13:55:04-04:00June 27th, 2017|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Lessons learned

Let’s have the DOJ re-create the wheel on Federal prison reform! “NOT”!!

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 [...]

By |2017-01-27T13:35:53-04:00January 23rd, 2017|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Let’s have the DOJ re-create the wheel on Federal prison reform! “NOT”!!

Crunch Time for Federal Prison Reform

I listened in on the Washington Post Criminal Justice forum yesterday. One of the panels involved Congressman Goodlatte of the House Judiciary who seemed a bit pessimistic about movement on criminal justice reform during this lame duck session of Congress. What was telling is rather than speak of an upcoming vote, he mentioned there was [...]

By |2016-09-15T13:50:06-04:00September 15th, 2016|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform|Comments Off on Crunch Time for Federal Prison Reform

Who do I pay for early release? (When it sounds too good to be true; it is!)

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 [...]

By |2017-01-30T23:08:27-04:00July 30th, 2016|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform|Comments Off on Who do I pay for early release? (When it sounds too good to be true; it is!)

SRACA-Truly missing the mark for the incarcerated

As currently written, Senate Bill 2123, or the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (SRACA) reduces a number of mandatory sentence provisions for drug offenses, makes crack/powder equalization retroactive, expands those eligible for “safety valve” reductions, reduces mandatory sentences for some types of gun offenses, and allows some inmates to “earn” sentence reduction by programming. While [...]

By |2015-10-28T18:09:57-04:00October 28th, 2015|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform|Comments Off on SRACA-Truly missing the mark for the incarcerated

Mr. President, please hear the voices of people from the trenches who have served the government but also those who have served time!(Before you pull out the pen)

Just about every day, there is yet another article on criminal justice reform. Just today, we read about the video released by the Whitehouse regarding the president traveling over the next few weeks to speak with leaders around the country. While it all sounds great, the president may truly be missing the mark if relying mostly on [...]

By |2015-10-22T12:51:33-04:00October 19th, 2015|Criminal Justice and Prison Reform|Comments Off on Mr. President, please hear the voices of people from the trenches who have served the government but also those who have served time!(Before you pull out the pen)
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