![]() Within the law’s first year, more than 3,000 inmates were released from prison early, according to the Justice Department, with the total now more than 7,500 inmates. Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images file Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, by his side, signs the First Step Act on Dec. In particular, the law’s supporters believe it can cut particularly harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and lessen the racial disparities affecting people of color in the criminal justice system. In 2018, former President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan First Step Act as a way to reduce recidivism and ease the federal prison population, which has fallen in recent years but still includes more than 140,000 inmates currently in custody. “Not only that, but the Biden administration ran on criminal justice reform, and now we can’t get answers for anything,” she said, adding that she hopes Carvajal’s replacement will “dig in quickly and prioritize those individuals who are just languishing in prison needlessly to the unnecessary expense of the taxpayer.” Holly Harris, a longtime Republican strategist who pushed for passage of the First Step Act as head of the nonpartisan Justice Action Network, said the change in administrations is no excuse for a slow rollout. “We estimate that there are thousands of inmates who will not receive the full benefit - days off of their federal prison sentence - of the First Step Act simply because the agency is uncertain how to calculate these benefits,” said Walter Pavlo, president of the consulting firm Prisonology LLC, whose experts include former Bureau of Prisons case managers, wardens and sentence computation professionals. In a response, bureau officials said, “We have no data which suggests inmates had their release dates delayed.”īut with the bureau’s own data identifying about 66,600 inmates who are eligible to earn time credits, some industry experts disagree. But it’s unclear how many qualified inmates are entitled to have been released early but remain incarcerated. The Justice Department declined to comment on Curtis’ case, citing privacy reasons.ĭata provided by the Bureau of Prisons shows that as of June 18, more than 8,600 inmates have had their sentences recalculated and are slated for release with the application of their time credits. ![]() … I can only wonder if this is by design, and what the total extent of impacted inmates is.” “As one of the many inmates that benefit from the FSA,” he wrote, referring to the First Step Act, “I’ve made strides to take classes, work and stay productive, but the BOP and its systemic way of operating inefficiently have stymied my ability to take the most amount of classes in an orderly fashion as prescribed in the FSA or to release me as soon as I should’ve been. Tim Bommel / Missouri House of Representatives via APĬurtis, 41, who is being held in the Federal Correctional Institution Elkton in Ohio, said he hasn’t had his time credits added since January, and if they were, he believes he would have been released in early June. Courtney Allen Curtis speaks on the House floor in Jefferson City in 2015. Courtney Curtis, a former Missouri state lawmaker who was sentenced last year to 21 months in federal prison for wire fraud related to the misallocation of campaign funds, said in a letter shared with NBC News that his time credits have not been adequately counted after he participated in programs such as “Be Successful,” “Drug Education” and “Talk to your Dr.” Former Missouri state Rep.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |