BOP Virus Spread Continues: Prisoners Now Part of Virus Experiment at FCI Forrest City Arkansas

New Study Finds Prisoners Over Five Times More Likely to Get COVID-19

by Derek Gilna

            A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers found that, "The Number of U.S. prison residents who tested positive of Coivd-19 was 5.5 times higher than the general population." This will come as no surprise to those at Butner, where 25 prisoners have already died, as has at least one staff member. System wide, seven thousand federal prisoners have contracted the virus, and 700 infected staff members have carried the virus  home, passing it to the general population. The federal prison system, beset by decades of mismanagement and inadequate medical care,  appears powerless to stop the spread.

            FCI Forrest City, which has seen similar levels of infection, has been made into a special testing facility, with prisoners as the subjects of the study.   Unlike most other compounds, the CDC at Forrest City has tested virtually everyone, and erected large tents on the recreation yard to allegedly segregate positive cases from those that were not positive. Although DOJ states that CDC is solely there to provide care and treatment, it is not, and instead is separating prisoners into different buildings, giving them varying levels of care, and then observing, which one participant called being akin to "human guinea pigs."

            Prison Legal News (PLN) also disclosed on July 1 that a secret document "raises risk factors, security levels of prisoners." PLN said that the document is apparently being "used to evaluate the security levels of prisoners, leaving some who qualified for release to home confinement stuck in prison during the ...pandemic with little explanation of how they were evaluated."

            In the 10th Circuit in US v Cantu, 19-6043, 7-6-20, the court held that Cantu was entitled to relief on his claim that he was not an ACCA, despite the fact that he had not preserved the claim in the district court, finding "plain error." Reversed and remanded. In US v Stewart, 19-60624, (5th Cir. 7-9-20), the court held that FSA does allow defendants convicted of certain crack cocaine offense to be resentenced as if the reduced statutory minimum penalties implemented by the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 were in place," and granted relief, but plenary resentencing was not required.   Reversed and remanded.

            In US v Denson, 19-11696, (11th Cir. 6-24-20), the court reduced a crack conviction brought under FSA from 262 to 188 months, but concurred with the 5th and 8th Circuits that a full (plenary) resentencing was not required. The 4th Circuit in Braswell v Smith, 952 F.3rd 441, (4th Cir. 3-4-20) expanded the Savings Clause of 2255(e) to include later retroactivity of a new rule not in effect at the time of sentencing, finding that a wrongful mandatory minimum was a fundamental defect, requiring relief.

            Let us know what we can do to assist you in preparing and filing  your Compassionate Release petitions, and your 2255's alleging inadequate representation of counsel. Let not your heart be troubled.

Federal Legal Center, Inc., Derek a. Gilna, JD, Director,

113 McHenry Rd, #173, Buffalo Grove, IL   60089, (Also in Indiana)

dgilna1948@yahoo.com,

Blogging as "Derek Gilna's Criminal Justice Blog."