First Step Act Progress Slowed by DOJ Internal Turmoil Highlighted By Inspector General Criticism of BOP Food Service

DOJ Internal Turmoil Accelerates, and Prisoners Are Caught in the Middle

by Derek Gilna

            With no new SCOTUS decisions or Congressional votes on sentence reform bills scheduled for the week, we turn to the most recent tongue-lashing the DOJ  and AG Barr received at the hands of a federal judge. In the "Free World," accountability rules the day; few people or businesses do not in some fashion answer to someone. What's highly unusual is that the federal bureaucracy, including DOJ prosecutors and law enforcement are now feeling some new, unwelcome heat. Many have resigned.

            The DOJ Inspector General just issued a report that DOJ serves its "customers" "tainted food; we have learned that the BOP does not have a quality assurance plan to ensure that food products procured by the BOP meet the specifications outlined in BOP contracts, the standards set forth in BOP's national menu, industry standards, and legal requirements... (who knew? lol)."

            There is a palpable unease in the institutions as a result of the increased  media and Congressional scrutiny. Staff, who don't like the new FSA changes and recent pardons and clemencies,  which continues to reduce prisoner counts, theorize that this will perhaps cost them their jobs, (and those all important pensions), and might be motivated  to provoke you into conduct that will yield an incident report that will deny you sentence reduction.

            Career DOJ prosecutors are also resisting the President's recently-leaked three-track clemency process that will supplant their glacial and prosecutor-biased current system. The White-House working group on justice-reform, which did the leg work on previous clemencies that bypassed the dilatory DOJ process, is working on that program.

            In the circuits, recent decisions have created more options for those filing bother first 2255's alleging inadequate representation of counsel, a well as second-successive 2255's, the preferred method to return to court on procedural grounds. For context, we revisit Washington v. Ryan, 05-99009, (9th Cir.  2019), where the panel reversed the district court’s denial of habeas relief as to the penalty phase, and remanded, in a case in which Arizona state prisoner Theodore Washington, who was sentenced to death for first-degree murder, asserted that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by not investigating and presenting mitigating evidence at sentencing.

            In US v Jawher, 19-1276, (8th Cir. 2-24-20), the court reversed on plain-error Rehaif grounds, where he had been convicted on one count of being an alien illegally in the country and possessing a firearm. This case has broad implications for those non-citizens convicted on similar grounds.

            In the Fourth Circuit, in US v Torres-Reyes, 18-4550, (4th Cir. 3-2-20), a non-citizen's conviction was reversed and remanded  where defense counsel failed to raised, and the court failed to properly consider,  his requested non-frivolous grounds for variance from his Guidelines range, "and gave an inadequate justification for the sentence...imposed."

            Have a good, productive week, let not your heart be troubled, and do not be afraid and do not be discouraged.

Federal Legal Center, Inc., Derek A. Gilna, JD, Director, 113 McHenry. #173,                              Buffalo Grove, IL 60089, (Also in Indiana) dgilna1948@yahoo.com.