Prison Newsletter Issues and Updates

This prison newsletter archive holds four issues from the summer of 2021. They were written as weekly notes for people in federal prison and the people helping them. Each issue is a snapshot of that week: a Supreme Court case, a bill, or a question readers were asking. Read the date on the issue before you rely on it. Several rules discussed in these notes have changed.

What the 2021 issues covered

The June 4 issue looks at the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act, which cleared a Senate committee and never became law, plus clemency plans and three § 2255 decisions. The June 11 issue is a same-week account of Borden v. United States, 593 U.S. 420 (2021), holding that a crime that can be committed recklessly is not a "violent felony" under the Armed Career Criminal Act's elements clause. The June 25 issue covers compassionate release for an older client, the § 2255(e) savings clause as lawyers were reading it after Borden, and a conflict-of-interest ruling. The July 2 issue asks whether Borden reached some § 924(c) sentences, marks 25 years of AEDPA limits on habeas, and reports the unanswered question of whether people on CARES Act home confinement would be sent back.

Those four posts are linked from the list under this introduction. They are not a complete set of later developments.

What changed after the issues were sent

Treat the legal conclusions in the issues as history unless the post's update note says otherwise.

The savings-clause discussion is the clearest example. In Jones v. Hendrix, 599 U.S. 465 (2023), the Supreme Court held that § 2255(e) does not let a person use a § 2241 petition to raise a new interpretation of a criminal statute after a first § 2255 motion. The June 25 issue says so in its update. A Borden argument that once looked like a second habeas path is not that path anymore.

CARES Act home confinement is also closed to new placements. The covered emergency period ended on May 10, 2023. A rule at 28 C.F.R. § 0.96(u) lets the Director of the Bureau of Prisons keep someone already placed on home confinement for the rest of the sentence if the person stays in compliance. New placements follow the ordinary limit in 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2): the shorter of 10 percent of the term or 6 months, separate from First Step Act time credits. Our home confinement guide has the current rules.

Compassionate release is broader than the 2021 issues could describe. Since November 1, 2023, the Commission's policy statement, USSG §1B1.13, applies when a person files the motion, not only when the Bureau does. The statute is still 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). One limit is newer than these newsletters: in Rutherford v. United States, 608 U.S. 454 (2026), the Supreme Court held that a non-retroactive change in sentencing law, such as the First Step Act's end of § 924(c) "stacking," cannot by itself be an extraordinary and compelling reason. Do not read a 2021 issue as saying that a stacking gap is a compassionate-release ground.

Guidelines, variances, and the presentence report

None of these issues is a guideline manual. Federal sentencing still starts with the range. Since November 1, 2025, USSG §1B1.1 uses two steps: calculate the range, then choose the sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Amendment 836 removed nearly all departures. A sentence outside the range is a variance. Substantial assistance remains at §5K1.1, on a government motion, and the Manual no longer calls it a departure. See departures and variances.

The presentence report is still the document that feeds the range. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32 sets the contents and the clocks: disclosure at least 35 days before sentencing, written objections within 14 days, and a final report with an addendum at least 7 days out. If you are using a 2021 newsletter to understand an old case, pair it with the PSR and the judgment, not with the newsletter alone. The guide to the presentence report is the current explanation.

Appeals, § 2255, and the hearing

A sentence can be reviewed on appeal under 18 U.S.C. § 3742. The notice of appeal is due in 14 days under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b). A § 2255 motion has its own one-year deadline under § 2255(f). The June issues discuss particular § 2255 opinions from that month. They are not a checklist of every ground that exists now. Start with the sentence-reduction guide and the § 3582 page when the question is whether a final sentence can be shortened.

If the sentencing hearing is still ahead, the newsletters will not prepare it. Rule 32(i) requires the court to confirm that the defendant and counsel discussed the presentence report, to resolve factual disputes that matter, and to let the defendant speak. Our page on the federal sentencing hearing is written for that day. Gather records early, put guideline disputes in the written objections, and ask for a variance under § 3553(a) rather than for a departure the Manual no longer contains.

Use this archive to see what federal prison news looked like in June and July 2021, then follow the update notes and the current guides. The list below is newest first. These pages are general information about federal cases.