In the News

BOP Director Michael Carvajal has announced his resignation and will remain interim director until a new one is nominated. The announcement comes after a series of scandals, including an AP investigation that detailed widespread abuse and criminal conduct by BOP employees.

In a new memo issued late in December, the DOJ reversed its prior position regarding what will happen to federal inmates on home confinement when the pandemic ends. Under the DOJ’s latest guidance, the BOP will keep inmates on home confinement after the emergency period under the CARES Act ends rather than send them back to prison. Now, inmates will only be sent back “where penologically justified.”

reported by NPR, a group of lawmakers in the House of representatives are proposing a new law that would transform the federal clemency process. Whereas clemency petitions are currently reviewed and adjudicated by the Department of Justice, the new law would create an independent clemency board for people convicted of federal crimes. The bill, known as the FIX Clemency Act, would create a 9-member board whose members are appointed by the President.

ast week, media outlets reported that the Department of Justice has launched “an expansive criminal investigation into short selling by hedge funds and research firms.” Among other things, the government is studying the relationships between hedge funds and the sources that publish reports that affect how a company’s stock price is performing. In other words, the government is scrutinizing whether firms that publish negative reports on certain companies are colluding with hedge funds that are shorting those companies’ stocks, and investigators are also looking into potential insider trading and other abuses.

Earlier this week, SCOTUS denied certiorari in Bryant v. U.S. In Bryant, the Eleventh Circuit created a circuit split by holding district courts considering motions for compassionate release or sentence reductions are bound by the narrow criteria under USSG 1B1.13. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, inmates will continue facing dramatically different, and more difficult, standards based on where they were convicted.

President Biden nominated 11 candidates for the federal judiciary in November, including 3 new circuit court judges and 8 district court judges. to date, the majority of President Biden’s nominees have been women, almost a third have been black, and his picks have included several civil rights lawyers, public defenders, and labor lawyers.

A recent Associated Press investigation found that over 100 federal prison workers have been arrested, convicted, or sentenced for a crime since 2019, including for crimes against inmates and fellow staff members. Concluding that the agency has become “a hotbed of abuse, graft, and corruption,” the article describes specific crimes committed by BOP employees, including sexual assault, smuggling contraband, and theft.

Shortly after the article was published, Senator Dick Durbin called for Attorney General Merrick Garland to replace the BOP’s director.

The last remaining member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Judge Charles Breyer, is urging the Biden Administration to nominate six additional members to join the seven-member panel, which has lacked a quorum since 2019. The U.S. Judicial Conference has recommended six nominees, but the Biden Administration has yet to nominate anyone to the Commission.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has released a new report on Recidivism among Federal Offenders. The Report breaks down statistics showing the likelihood of re-offending among defendants based on their criminal history, age, the type of offense, and a variety of other factors.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has released two reports this year suggesting that an increasing number of federal judges are rejecting the harsh recommended penalties in child pornography offenses. These reports include statistics showing that the Guidelines for such offenses are outdated and unable to distinguish between more and less severe cases and that, as a result, judges are rejecting the Guidelines. The reports also include statistics showing that non-violent sex offenders generally pose a much lower risk of recidivism than offenders convicted of non-sex offenses.