Newest Draft of Senate Bill 2123 Amended in Committee, Advances
by Derek Gilna
Many of you
have been inquiring whether the facts of your case would qualify you for relief
under the new Senate or House bills. Of course, as I have told many of you
individually, there are many hurdles to
clear before these bills become law, so it is important to not focus too much
on the current language in the proposed legislation. That having been said, a few changes were
made in committee this past week that at least gives us some clues as to what
the final bill will look like.
First,
there has been more emphasis regarding extra good time for programming in this
version, with 5 extra days given for 30 days of successful programming. People currently incarcerated for some narrowly
defined violent crimes, and with more than a 15 year sentence for fraud or
other white collar offenders are excluded. The RDAP program is mandated to
ensure that everyone eligible can enter the program early enough to get the
full year of credit. The BOP has a time limit to put together a plan for these
programs and is subject to annual reviews by Congress to check its progress,
because I suspect Congress is aware of
past BOP failures on RDAP and other sentence-reducing programs. For the first
time, the BOP will have to do risk assessments to determine offenders'
suitability for early release.
Secondly,
compassionate release requirements are now spelled out in the statute, rather
than merely left to BOP rule-making.
Obviously, Congress doesn't trust the BOP to properly implement this
program either.
Finally,
there are some significant reductions for drug offenders. Crimes that had MMs
of 20 years are now 15 years; it is possible to petition under 3553a for
retroactive relief. In the case of a non-violent drug offense previously
calling for a 10-year MM, that is reduced to 5. People who received no relief
under the Fair Sentencing Act can now petition the court for relief.
Additionally, for the first time, it appears that 3552a petitioner must be brought to court and
have an opportunity to present his case.
Federal Legal Center, Inc.
Derek A. Gilna, Director
113 McHenry, #173
dgilna1948@yahoo.com
