Thousands of inmates sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) are serving prison terms that the US Supreme Court says are unconstitutional. The recent ruling in Erlinger v. United States mandates that a jury, not a judge, must determine whether prior convictions occurred on separate occasions before enhancing a sentence under ACCA. This landmark
The US Sentencing Commission created “JSIN” (sounds like “Jason”) as a resource for Judges who want to understand how defendants are really being sentenced under the guidelines. And, currently thirty-one federal jurisdictions are now incorporating JSIN data into the pre-sentence report. But, are the stats accurate? Could these numbers help or harm defendants? IN THIS
It is now DAY 50 of the outbreak in BOP facilities. For the second day in a row, the number of infected inmates is exploding, driven almost exclusively by FCI-Lompoc. Apparently, a second inmate has died at the USP-Lompoc, but the BOP is not reporting it. In fact, the BOP no longer is reporting the
These four charts provide a visualization of the spread of the coronavirus within BOP facilities based on the latest available data published by the BOP and other sources as of 8:30 EDT, Tuesday, May 5, 2020. These charts also provide some important comparisons to contextualize the growth of the virus within the BOP. The first
Daily statistical updates on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the BOP that can be used to support Compassionate Release Petitions and Requests for Home Confinement
On April 15, 2016, following last year’s important amendments to relevant conduct, mitigating role, and fraud guidelines, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to continue to make fundamental fixes to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (USSG) that have long been in need of repair. These fixes became final on November 1, 2016 During this amendment cycle, with