New DOJ First Step Rules Mandate Expansive Application of Programming Credits; Multiple Covid Deaths at Alderson; Omicron Now Comprises over 95% of All Cases: Heavy Death Toll in Federal Prison Contradicts Government Arguments of Vaccination Effectiveness in Compassionate Releases; Elderly Sentence Relief Bill; Dignity of Women Act; Appellate Updates
by Derek Gilna
DOJ
narrowly beat the statutory deadline of
Virtually all prison programming, as well as employment in Unicor, will qualify, although orderly jobs will not. Programming, whether completed or not, will qualify, and it is my suspicion that since prison officials are prone to exaggeration regarding the level of successful participation in programming to impress their supervisors, you might receive more credit than you think, especially important given pandemic restrictions. Generally speaking, crimes of violence, arson, leadership, and computer, immigration crimes, and SO offenses will not qualify for sentence credit, although programming may still qualify you for additional phone minutes, commissary, and placement closer to home. Make certain that you gather your programming information and ask your counselor or case manager for further verification of that information. Since DOJ often has a problem following its own rules and regulations, I expect problems to arise. If proper credits are not given, I look forward to assisting you to make sure you get all the time off that you deserve.
The COVID nightmare continues in federal prisons, with Alderson experiencing 3 and perhaps 4 deaths in the past ten days, and Carswell and other institutions experiencing death, and untold misery. The CDC says that the highly infectious OMICRON variant has supplanted DELTA in 85% of recorded cases, and in the outside world has resulted in less hospitalization and death. However, the miserable state of health care in federal prison means that those who contract OMICRON are in worse physical state to start with, and in-prison treatment of COVID is virtually non-existent. When a prisoner's physical state has become grave, short-handed and over-worked staff scramble to take them to the hospital, where it is often too late to reverse the illness' progression.
Many prison officials have responded by blocking email, telephone, and even snail-mail access to lawyers and advocates, opening legal mail in violation of DOJ rules, but , of course, this is all a futile exercise of a corrupt and unaccountable bureaucracy. Dozens of Congressmen have promised a full investigation of the federal prison system's pathetic response to COVID, with blunt language that all but promises investigation and possible further legal action. Needless to say, these Congressmen are all now on my mailing list.
Censorship in a free society can only work for so long, as is becoming obvious with additional studies regarding vaccine ineffectiveness suddenly becoming public as the CDC admits that OMICRON cannot be controlled by vaccination. Although more studies and data are becoming available on a daily basis, it is clear that vaccination does not prevent OMICRON infection, and in prisoners with at least one, but generally more than one co-morbidities, it can still be fatal, as proven at Alderson and Carswell, but also at dozens of other institutions.
There are
also continuing doubts about whether DOJ's handling of the vaccines prior to
their being administered compromised their effectiveness, and concern about the
safety of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which has quietly been
discontinued in federal prisons after some severe reactions. Food and Drug
Administration officials on Tuesday added a bleeding risk to fact sheets
for Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. Administrators and recipients of
the J&J vaccine in the
Center for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s recent
comments on COVID-19 deaths were that an overwhelming number of deaths, 75
percent, occurred in people who had four or more comorbidities.
“So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with,” Walensky said; a recent study from the agency that looked at the more than 1.2 million persons who completed primary vaccination during December 2020–October 2021 found that 78 percent of the people to die from COVID-19 after receiving the vaccine had at least four other underlying health conditions. It also found that, in all deaths, the patient had at least one other risk factor. www.gma.com, January 7, 2022, "Who Completed a Primary COVID-19 Vaccination Series — 465 Health Care Facilities, United States, December 2020–October 2021, Weekly / January 7, 2022 / 71(1);19–25," https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7101a4.htm?s_cid=mm7101a4_w.
Just a few
of the other highly-affected institutions are
Senator Tom
Cotton, no friend of prisoners as you know, introduced S. 3481
in the US Senate on January 12, the "Preventing Violence Against Female Inmates Act of 2022," "A bill to secure the dignity and safety of incarcerated women," which mandates that only prisoners of the same biological sex, rather than declared sexual identification, can be housed together.
FSA also broadened the possibility of elderly release, which would be further expanded by legislation pending in Congress. Under the current program, an elderly inmate must be at least 60 years old, and must have served at least two-thirds of their total prison sentence, have no violence in their background and be considered low risk. The pending S.312 - COVID–19 Safer Detention Act of 2021, introduced by Senator Dick Durbin, drops the time-served portion to 50%, and expands the Compassionate Release criteria to make approval easier. Durbin's bill has multiple co-sponsors, and strong bipartisan backing, and I give it a good chance of passage.
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In
the circuits, in US v. Smith, 20-12667, (11th Cir. 1-12-22), Smith,
a software engineer, obtained the coordinates of artificial
fishing reefs in the Gulf of Mexico from a website owned by StrikeLines, a
Florida business. Smith remained in Smith was charged in the Northern
District of Florida with violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18
U.S.C. 1030(a)(2)(C), (c)(2)(B)(iii), theft of trade secrets, and
transmitting a threat through interstate commerce with intent to extort.
Smith argued that venue was improper because all the prohibited conduct
occurred in the |
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Every man is somebody, because he is a child of God: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Be not afraid, and let not your heart be troubled. Derek Gilna, Director, JD, (De Paul Law School , 1975),
MARJ, ( Blog: "Derek Gilna's Federal Criminal
Justice Musings and Reflections." |
