Sentence Relief Continues to Be g=Granted by Federal Appellate Circuits; Prison COVID Updates; Pell Grants for Prisoners

 9th Circuit Joins 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 10th In Extending First Step Act 3582 (c)(1)(A) Relief; Prisoners Can Get Pell Grants; DOJ Botches Prisoner COVID-shot Rollout

 

by Derek  Gilna           

 

            While Congress battles over trillion-dollar infrastructure proposals, another federal circuit has provided an additional path to sentence relief.  US v. Aruda, No. 20-10245 (9th Cir. April 8, 2021: "Aruda appeals from the district court’s order denying her motion for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i).  We hold that the current version of U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“U.S.S.G.”) § 1B1.13 is not an' applicable policy statement issued by the Sentencing Commission' for motions filed by a defendant under the recently amended § 3582(c)(1)(A).  Because the district court relied on U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13, we vacate and remand so that the district court can reassess Aruda’s motion for compassionate release under the correct legal standard...." 

            This followed the decision in US v. Shkambi, No. 20-40543 (5th Cir. April 7, 2021). "The question presented is whether the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s compassionate-release policy statement binds district courts in considering prisoners’ motions under the First Step Act (“FSA”). The district court said yes and dismissed Francesk Shkambi’s motion for lack of jurisdiction. That was wrong for two reasons. First, the district court did have jurisdiction. And second, the policy statement is inapplicable. We reverse and remand...."  These motions are NOT limited to only those individuals with chronic medical conditions that could be aggravated by COVID.                                                                     

          Prisoners will now be allowed to apply for federal student aid in the form of Pell grants after Congress rescinded a ban in place since 1994, PBS reports. The $1.4 trillion government spending bill Congress passed along with coronavirus relief includes a measure that restores Pell grant funding for those who are incarcerated in state and federal prisons.                                                                                                                        

          Unfortunately, it appears that more people who received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine reported side effects than recipients of the Pfizer shot, according to a recent study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in the online journal JAMA. https://javajournal.com. According to analysis of reports from over 3 million vaccine recipients by the CDC, almost 70% of those who received the Moderna vaccine said they experienced an adverse reaction at the injection site such as pain or swelling, while about half reported side effects like chills or fatigue ."A greater percentage of participants who received the Moderna vaccine, compared with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, (and) this pattern was more pronounced after the second dose," the researchers noted. www.cdc.com.   

                "The public understandably has been concerned about reports of rare, severe allergic reactions to the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a statement on Wednesday.        In data taken from Dec. 14, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021, about 74% of Moderna recipients reported an adverse reaction following a single dose, with 82% reporting side effects after the second dose, compared to 65% of Pfizer recipients after the first dose and 68% after the second.  Of course, the main concern for prisoners is that they will not receive proper care from prison medical personnel, nor have the opportunity to obtain over-the-counter mediation to deal with the symptoms."    

             The National Institutes of Health recognized the issue of adverse reactions by announcing this week that it will conduct a clinical trial of allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, specifically "to determine whether people who are highly allergic or have a mast cell disorder are at increased risk for an immediate, systemic allergic reaction" after receiving either vaccine.

            Many now accuse DOJ of quietly conducting numerous herd-immunity  experiments during the COVID-19 outbreak by mixing positive and negative prisoners. This follows on the heels of more accusations that Federal prison officials withheld more data about COVID-19 behind bars. Last month it removed from its coronavirus count prisoners who had tested positive but who have been released. This month the DOJ lowered the number of deaths it is reporting among people held in private prisons. COVID-19 and its new variants are still impacting many prison facilities.   From Coleman Low in Florida, we hear that there are 51 new cases, with 24 in quarantine in SHU, 31 in the chapel, with all 4 buildings locked down. From the women's facility in FCI Tallahassee, where one prisoner shared her diary from late February to the present. Although the virus appeared to have receded, she started having symptoms of no smell, no taste  dry cough, sweat, and nausea. Soon her whole unit was sick. "The officers don't even come and check on us, at all," she wrote. At least one lady, she said, "had some problems with her kidneys and other medical complications going on that this place wouldn't take care of." She caught Covid and is now in a hospital on a ventilator.

            Fewer than 20% of federal and state prisoners have received a COVID-19 shot, a new tally reveals. Complicating the equation are concerns about prison staff refusing vaccines in high numbers. Unlike prisoners, staff can receive vaccines from providers other than the corrections department, which can make staff levels difficult to track. Staff vaccination is particularly important, said Monik Jiménez, an assistant professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, because employees can travel between prisons and the outside community. She stressed that both staff and prisoners need high vaccine coverage in order to effectively reduce COVID-19 transmission. 

         Concern continues that COVID persists in the nation's jails and prisons and will continue to fuel infections in the surrounding communities. Assessing the relationship between imprisonment and the disease caused by the novel coronavirus is the subject of a December 2020 report by the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), a nonprofit, non-partisan advocacy group dedicated to exposing the harmful effects of mass incarceration.

         The answer they found was shocking: From May 1 through August 1, 2020, there were 566,804 infections that could be traced to correctional facilities in the U.S.

         This estimate dwarfs the number of cases reported inside correctional facilities, which a database maintained by The Marshall Project estimated  around 68,000 during the three-month period. www.prisonpolicyinitiative.com.  

          Be not afraid, and let not your heart be troubled.

Federal Legal Center, Derek A. Gilna, JD, MARJ, Director

113 McHenry Rd.   #173, Buffalo Grove, IL   60089 (and Indiana)

dgilna1948@yahoo.com; blog at "Derek Gilna's Musings and Reflections."