First Step Act Continues to Fuel Prisoner Relief Petitions; Reform Bills Delayed by GOP Posturing on Violent Crime

First Step Act Filings Accelerate, While Congress Dithers on Reform Before November Election; EQUAL  Act Passage Still Possible This Year; COVID Updates; 

by Derek Gilna 

            Over three years since its passage, the First Step Act (FSA), is still the gift that "keeps on giving." Courts in almost all districts are giving defendant's, who previously had to petition appellate courts to file second-successive 2255's, with uneven results, now use "extraordinary and compelling" circumstances to revisit previous sentencing decisions.

            FSA sentence credits for those eligible are still stalled, as DOJ delays what it should have completed in January. DOJ does not permit the prisons to issue credits, which are being done in Central Office and Grand Prairie. Beware the misdirection and rumors from staff. Most of those eligible will receive the maximum of one year sentence credit, in addition to RDAP credits.

            A super-majority of U.S. Senators, including Charles Grassley of Iowa, who along with Senator Durbin, and of course, President Donald Trump, pushed FSA through Congress in the face of opposition from Mitch McConnell and Tom Cotton, are still in favor of sentence reform.    Of course, in the House, EQUAL passed overwhelmingly. I do not expect a vote on criminal justice reform in the Senate until after the November elections, but will continue to follow all bills closely. (Both Grassley and Durbin are up for reelection.) Also probably waiting until after the November election is reform of PATTERN and a housecleaning of the federal prison system for its botched COVID response.

            It appears that a lot of groups who would normally strongly push for justice reform have instead bogged down in "defund the police" culture-war rhetoric which, combined with the rise of crime in central cities controlled by democrats, have  empowered the Tom Cottons of the world to oppose any reform. Both McConnell and Cotton were critical of the recent pardons, attempting to conflate justice with chaos.  

            More data is emerging that show that vaccinations and boosters lose their effectiveness within 4 months, and that there’s a good chance you’ll get Covid more than once. Covid-19 reinfections are common and can happen within a shorter window of time than doctors previously thought possible, recent research suggests. More than half of people in the U.S. showed signs of having been infected at least once as of February, according to a report Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. www.wsj.com.

            Data from the U.K. government found that reinfections were 10 times higher during the recent Omicron outbreak compared with the earlier Delta outbreak between May and December last year. People who were unvaccinated, younger and lived in areas the study described as more deprived were more likely to be reinfected between July 2020 and March 2022. (The U.S. doesn’t track national reinfection rates broadly.) www.ons.uk.gov. Interestingly, there have been NO peer-reviewed scientific reports published that prove that the vaccinated get milder symptoms, but there are plenty of reports of serious side effects of those who got vaccinated.

            Of course, the inept prison medical system ignores these reports, refuses to test, and ignores the resulting misery of Long Covid, which not only weakens people but makes them vulnerable to other diseases. Amy Duckro, an infectious-disease specialist with Kaiser Permanente, says many questions about long Covid remain unanswered. “I don’t think we should make any bets on someone who has a reinfection having a less likelihood of having long Covid,” says Dr. Duckro. A research group that grew out of the Body Politic patient support group is launching a reinfection study with part of a $3 million grant it recently received to study the impact of reinfections on long Covid patients. Gina Assaf, a co-founder and co-leader of the research group, says Body Politic has heard from people who got long Covid after a reinfection. “We don’t know to what degree it’s happening, but it is happening,” she says, in the Wall Street Journal.https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-twice-immunity-reinfection-vaccine-1651013266.

        "Any fool can make something complicated.    It takes a genius to make it simple" Woody Guthrie. 

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

Derek Gilna, Director, JD, (De Paul Law School , 1975), MARJ, (Vermont Law School, 2020), Federal Legal Center, 113 McHenry Rd. #173, Buffalo Grove, IL   60089 (and Indiana); dgilna1948@yahoo.com (English newsletter and ALL inquiries, English or Spanish); (Alternate email: dagilna1948@yahoo.com, firststeprelief@yahoo.com).