News · Page 3 of 10
Federal Sentencing News Archive, Page 3
- Risk Assessment Tools in Sentencing: Do They Help or Harm?
Risk assessment tools score how likely someone is to commit another crime, and many courts now use those scores at sentencing, which is why they are so debated.
- Why Prisoners Were Left Out of COVID-19 Vaccine Trials
Strict federal rules on research with prisoners, written after decades of abuse, kept people in prison out of the 2020 COVID-19 vaccine trials.
- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, at age 87, after 27 years on the U.S. Supreme Court.
- People in Prison Died of COVID-19 at Twice the Rate of the Public
In 2020, people in U.S. prisons died of COVID-19 at about twice the rate of people outside, even after adjusting for age, sex and race.
- JUSTFAIR: Look Up How a Federal Judge Has Sentenced People
JUSTFAIR is a public database that links about 600,000 federal sentences to the judges who imposed them.
- Fewer Americans Were in Prison, Jail or on Probation in 2018
The number of U.S. adults in prison, in jail or on probation or parole fell 2.1% from 2017 to 2018, mostly because fewer people were on community supervision.
- How to Prove Your Lawyer's Mistakes Hurt You in a Guilty Plea Case
· Trial
What you must prove depends on the mistake: bad advice to plead guilty, bad advice to reject an offer, or never being told about an offer each has its own test.
- What the First Step Act Did in Its First Year
In its first year, the First Step Act shortened 2,387 crack cocaine sentences, opened the safety valve to more people, and nearly ended § 924(c) stacking.
- When Can a Guilty Plea Be Challenged? The "Knowing and Voluntary" Standard
· Trial
A guilty plea can be challenged if it was not truly voluntary or knowing, but your sworn answers at the plea hearing make that hard, so specific facts matter.
- Which Health Conditions Supported Compassionate Release During COVID-19?
During the pandemic, health conditions the CDC linked to severe COVID-19 were often the core of a compassionate release request, though a health condition alone was never enough.
- How Overuse of Solitary Confinement Spread COVID-19 at a BOP Medical Center
A man held at a BOP medical center says staff spread COVID-19 by overusing solitary confinement, against the BOP's own policy and CDC guidance.
- How COVID-19 Spread Through FCI Seagoville: An Account From Inside
By July 2020, more than 800 of about 1,500 men at FCI Seagoville had tested positive, and one of them describes how lax masking and late testing let it happen.
- Which State Offices Handle White-Collar Crime?
A Bureau of Justice Statistics report shows which state attorneys general handled white-collar cases in 2014 and what sanctions they saw.
- How Courts Used Compassionate Release to Fix Unfair Sentences in 2020
Once the First Step Act let prisoners file their own motions, some judges used compassionate release to cut sentences they saw as unfair, though later rulings have narrowed that path.
- A Letter From FCI Seagoville: How the Prison Failed to Stop COVID-19
A man held at FCI Seagoville wrote that unmasked staff and untested transfers spread COVID-19 through his building, after a judge denied his compassionate release request.
- Why the First Step Act's Good Time Fix Didn't Bring People Home Right Away
A drafting problem tied the First Step Act's good time increase to a risk assessment system that didn't exist yet, so it took effect seven months late, on July 19, 2019.
- Life on COVID-19 Lockdown at FCI Seagoville: One Man's Account
In July 2020, Anthony Accurso wrote from FCI Seagoville that men were locked down, services were cut, and no one he knew had been sent home.
- Will the First Step Act Lead to a Second Step in Prison Reform?
The First Step Act was expected to shrink federal prisons only modestly, so one scholar argued the next step should return them to a small, focused role.
- Prison Labor: Job Training or Exploitation?
Prison jobs can train people for life after release or turn them into cheap labor, and programs in Peru and federal prison pay in the U.S. show both sides.
- Three Months Locked in a Cell: COVID-19 Lockdown at FCI Petersburg
In July 2020, Kelly Jones wrote from FCI Petersburg that he had spent three months locked in his cell, cut off from visits, with few chances to shower or go outside.