Happy Mother's Day; Congressional Abortion Debate Delays Votes on Reform Until After Election; Still No FSA Sentencing Credits Given; First Batch of Clemencies Creates Hope for More After the Election; COVID Roars Back As Prison System Slammed for Denial of COVID Drug Therapies;
by Derek Gilna
To mothers and grandmothers, a belated Mother's Day; may your next one be celebrated with your family. Many of you are incarcerated for drug and property offenses, often stemming from poverty and/or substance use disorders, or abusive partners. Unfortunately, prosecutors and judges often do not take into account women's vital roles in preserving families, putting many communities under even further strain. The lack of proper sanitation supplies, specialized medical care, and the seeming inability of the bureau to protect vulnerable women from predatory staff is also an under-reported national scandal.
From a
women's prison in the state of
We have consistently had to beg for toilet paper. Now these past 2 weeks they have been completely OUT OF sanitary pads ! There are 200+ women being housed here.
This is nothing short of DISGRACEFUL. Commissary is out of most things and we are being told they are out of money so they cannot order anything. The Food Service officers say they don't have produce to feed us." The First Step Act's Compassionate Release provisions may provide an avenue for individuals seeking home confinement to return to their families.
There is
also no response from DOJ as to why no FSA sentence and HW house and
home-confinement credits have been given; thus,
you are encouraged to explore your options if you are between 6 months
and two years from the door, or CARES eligible. A clemency petition is yet
another avenue for possible relief.
Unfortunately, the escalating political controversy surrounding the federal abortion issue almost ensures that none of the sentence reform bills will be considered before the November elections-there are simply not enough legislative days on the calendar. However, the abortion issue will also sideline the Tom Cotton/ Josh Hawley effort in the Senate to defeat the EQUAL Act and other legislation already approved by the House.
Of more
immediate concern to prisoners is the nationwide surge in COVID infections,
with
The new
study showed that the federal prison system
appears to have left some of the most effective drugs for treating
Covid-19, such as Pfizer’s antiviral pill, Paxlovid, almost completely unused.
The prescribing records, which span from
Sen. Dick
Durbin (D-Ill.), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which also
oversees the federal prison system, said in a statement that he is “very concerned”
by the new data. “Covid-19 therapeutics are lifesaving drugs that should be
available to anyone who meets the criteria — whether that person is
incarcerated or not,” Durbin said. “This pandemic has hit
Thirty-eight
people have died at Butner, and more than 1,100 have gotten infected, according
to data compiled by the UCLA Covid Behind Bars Data Project. Two lawsuits
against the facility filed by the ACLU in May and October 2020 alleged that the
prison had made insufficient efforts to isolate men with Covid-19 symptoms and
to test the men within their care. Thirteen of the 918 people housed at Devens
have died since the start of the pandemic. Ten of the 1,236 people housed at
Several other prisons haven’t prescribed any antivirals at
all, despite having huge surges of Covid-19 within their walls, according to
the prescribing data. The Yazoo City Federal Correctional Complex has had the
second-most Covid cases in the entire prison system. More than 1,700 people
housed at the complex have tested positive for the virus since the start of the
pandemic. But the facility has never prescribed an antiviral drug. Neither has
Coleman Federal Correctional Complex , which had the third-most Covid-19 cases
in the federal prison system. The federal prison in
Be not afraid, and let not your heart be troubled.
Derek Gilna, Director, JD, (De Paul Law School , 1975),
MARJ, (
