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As the U.S. House held a hearing on criminal issues, including the applicability of the First Step Act and Compassionate Release during the COVID-19 pandemic, outgoing BOP director Michael Carvajal submitted written testimony. Director Carvajal noted that the BOP has started to award earned time credits to inmates, resulting in several hundreds being released. Most were transferred to supervised release or pre-release custody such as halfway houses. Director Carvajal also stated the BOP would be applying time credits “towards supervised release for the sentences of over 4,900 inmates.” Director Carvajal further stated that, since March 26, 2020, the BOP has released more than 37,000 inmates to community custody or home confinement, though only 9,000 of those inmates were transferred “directly pursuant to the authority granted by the CARES Act.” He also reported that the BOP is aware of 4,025 compassionate release motions being granted by courts since passage of the First Step Act, with the vast majority (3,851) coming during the pandemic. Finally, Director Carvajal reported that 1,177 inmates have been released under the Elderly Offender Home Detention Program.

Last week, the Department of Justice announced a new effort to target and prosecute “domestic terrorism” cases” by establishing a new unit within its National Security Division. Since there is no specific law criminalizing “domestic terrorism,” as there is international terrorism, the new unit will likely investigate and prosecute offenders under federal laws aimed at protecting government property, prohibiting unusual weapons, interstate threats, firearm offenses, arson, and hate crimes.

Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Barrett, issued a statement regarding the denial of certiorari in a case addressing the circuit split over the proper definition of “controlled substance offense”under the career offender sentencing guidelines. The justices were critical of the fact that “the Sentencing Commission has not had a quorum for three full years,” highlighting the “direct and severe consequences for defendant’s sentences” absent a functioning Commission.

In significant news to sentencing reform advocates, the Department of Justice recently announced a new rule interpreting the First Step Act’s provision on “earned time credits,” which allow inmates to earn sentence reductions by completing certain programs. Under the new rule, eligible inmates can earn up to 10 days of “time credits” for every 30 days of “successful participation in evidence-based recidivism reduction programming or productive activities.” Certain inmates are not eligible, including sex offenders, deportable inmates, and inmates with convictions for violent crimes or under 924(c).

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.