DOJ Scrambles to Spin Covid-19 Cases and Deaths but Quietly
Expands Release Criteria
by Derek Gilna
Each day of
the last week has brought dizzying changes in federal prison policy relating to
Covid-19 release criteria, driven not only by the Attorney General, but also public
opinion, and lawsuits from both individual prisoners and federal prison guard
unions. Local, rural communities adjacent to prisons rightly fear that their
limited health care facilities will be overwhelmed by the disease's spread. DOJ still has not done sufficient testing and
fails to properly protect prisoners and prison employees from the deadly virus,
ineptly "quarantining" sick with healthy prisoners, and "spinning"
and "minimizing" the crisis. DOJ's systemic Covid failures are front-page
news everywhere.
Those
"non-violent," non SO, "non-violent" prisoners over 60 who
have served roughly half of their sentences, and who have CDC-defined risk
factors are being prioritized, but the only certainty in this statement is that
it will change, based upon other factors that REALLY drive DOJ policy: fear of bad
publicity and ACLU and prisoner lawsuits. Close to 1000 have already been
released to home confinement, including one who had an "escape." Prison
medical treatment is so substandard that every member of prison staff should be
held liable if you are denied release, and are then infected, as a violation of
policy, not to mention the 8th Amendment. More on that next week.
What if you
are not on the "list?" Start the clock by filing a request for
Compassionate Release, citing "extraordinary and compelling" reasons,
including Covid-19, especially if you meet the aforementioned criteria. That
request can be in writing or via email;
keep a copy. If you are
rejected, or the warden fails to respond in 30 days, First Step permits you to
file WITHOUT exhausting administrative remedies, although never a bad idea to
continue filing them. Start working on a
release plan, and gather your medical and programming evidence, as a matter of
routine, for possible future use. By all
means, put prison staff on notice that your physical health
is threatened by their inaction.
Despite the
pandemic pandemonium, federal courts are still all put and running, although
oral arguments have been put on hold. In USDC ,
WD of Louisiana at Lake Charles
In US
In US 4-8-20 ),
the court reversed, stating that making terroristic threats is not a predicate
violent felony under ACCA.
In this
week following Easter and Passover, let not your heart be troubled.
Federal Legal Center, Inc., Derek A. Gilna, JD, Director
dgilna1948@yahoo.con. Google blogspot: Derek Gilna Criminal Justice
Blog
