Sentence Relief Delayed
by Derek Gilna
First it was the Stimulus Bill that monopolized Congressional attention. Now it is the prospects of a multi-trillion dollar "Infrastructure" bill (which has not even been written or filed) that has captured the short attention spans of federal lawmakers. Thus, it appears for at least the moment that sentence relief legislation currently sits in Congressional committees, waiting for the leadership okay to advance these bills for a vote. Obviously, when that takes place, and the bills pass, Biden will sign them immediately.
For impatient readers and their families, understand that these sentence relief bills will make profound changes to the federal criminal justice system, reflecting the same changes already happening in the states. In my opinion, even a few of these changes will reduce non-immigration federal prisoner counts by at least a third.
Sentence
relief cannot be separated from the reality of American politics. Where are
most of the federal prisons located? In Southern states, by a wide margin, established
in the area when it was solidly Democratic and Democrats controlled Congress. Why does
If you are looking for quick reform to somehow come from within in the DOJ-run and largely unaccountable federal prison system, you will be disappointed. Congressional action, and the stated preferences for reform of the new president will make "reform" irrelevant, by robbing the system of its "customers." Only when the system returns to its pre-Drug War population levels will you see improvement.
One of the other ways that the system will be reformed is by the President taking advantage of his unlimited pardon and clemency power. The rumors of a broad-based clemency occurring sooner rather than later will not go away, and I again encourage those of you who wish to do so to start the clemency process. These things have a way of not moving for a long time (remember First Step?) and then moving very quickly, so best to get your place in line for at least a chance at relief. Biden designated April as "Second Chance Month," to once again reemphasize his commitment to sentence reform and doing more to assist the successful reentry of releasing prisoners.
And what of
the scandal of prison health care? Many
prisons are located in rural areas, far from the areas where qualified
physicians and medical staff want to live and raise their families. Many
current medical employees have sketchy pasts, and are employed at a prison
because that is the only job they can get. Many of them actively conceal the
system's incompetence by falsifying medical records, a federal offense.
Prisoners fight to receive off the shelf batteries to run necessary medical
devices. Transferred prisoners are denied their proper medication and C-
In this era of technological advancement, why shouldn't the prison system consider the possibility of telemedicine, where prisoners can consult with true medical experts via video link in the all-important diagnostic stage? This would reduce staff to the role of dispensers of medication, and save taxpayers millions. We were able to get compassionate release for a cancer patient who complained of her symptoms for many months while she was isolated by officials using the COVID excuse. She is now at home with her family.
In this era of universal surveillance and data-tracking, as well as numerous instances where defense attorneys and advocates have been surveilled in "secure" legal phone calls and other communications, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and Berkley Law has sued the federal government for this breach of ethics. In February, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act by a vote of 414 to 11. In the meantime, understand that there is NO secure communication in any form in prison.
This would
also be an appropriate place to reemphasize the federal government's robust
computer-diagnostic tools which effectively track
COVID-19 is the uninvited guest who refuses to leave. While the federal prison system emphasizes the number of "recovered" prisoners after its apparent policy of forced exposure, apparently to build "herd immunity," COVID continues to pop up over the entire federal prison system. To name just two, Coleman Low is almost in complete shutdown, with serious cases, some requiring intubation in local hospitals Aliceville is in a new lockdown to suppress the spread there.
The
symptoms of "Long COVID," ignored by DOJ, will receive a $1.5 billion dollar grant for
further study, according to the Wall Street Journal posted on
We also
reemphasize the use of relief under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(1)(A)(i), as amended
by section 603(b)(1) of the First Step Act of 2018, Pub L. 115-391, 132 Stat.
5194, 5239, which allows a sentence reduction for “extraordinary and compelling
reasons.” See US v. McDonel, No.
07-20189 (ED
US v. Nafkha, No. 2:95-CR-00220-001-TC (D
Be not afraid, and let not your heart be troubled.
federallc_esp@yahoo.com for Spanish newsletter;
"Derek Gilna's Criminal Justice Musings and Reflections," on Google blogs.
