"Unequal Treatment: (In)compassionate Release from Federal Prison in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Vaccine"

May 17, 2022

The title of this post is the title of this new piece now available via SSRN authored by Mariah Haley. Here is its abstract: COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, has wreaked havoc globally since it was first discovered in December 2019. In the United States, many federal prisons experienced outbreaks of the virus, leading to both severe illness and death. Almost as soon as the pandemic began in the United States, people in prison…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Federal prison population up a lot more than another 1,500 persons in a little more than a month

By Douglas Berman

May 13, 2022

Regular readers are now used to my regular monthly posts about the federal prison population based on Bureau of Prison data. These posts of late have regularly noted significant and steady population growth in recent months In this post on March 18, I noted that the federal prison population had grown by over 1,100 persons in just four weeks from mid February and mid March. And this post on April 8 noted that it…

Sentencing Law and Policy

New Sentencing Project fact sheet highlights rise (and recent declines) in the incarceration of women and girls

By Douglas Berman

May 12, 2022

The folks at The Sentencing Project have assembled some fascinating data on the number of incarcerated women at this site and in this fact sheet. Here is part of their description of the fact sheet: Between 1980 and 2020, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 475%, rising from a total of 26,326 in 1980 to 152,854 in 2020. The total count in 2020 represents a 30% reduction from the prior year…

Sentencing Law and Policy

US Sentencing Commission releases latest detailed "Compassionate Release Data Report"

By Douglas Berman

May 10, 2022

Via email, I got word that the US Sentencing Commission today published this updated compassionate release data report. Here is the very brief accounting of the report from the email (as well as a reprinting of the graphic that appears as Figure 1 of the report): With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the courts received thousands of compassionate release motions, most filed by offenders. This report provides an analysis of the compassionate release…

Sentencing Law and Policy

"Prisons and jails will separate millions of mothers from their children in 2022"

By Douglas Berman

May 8, 2022

The title of this post is the title of this briefing by Prison Policy Initiative authored by Wendy Sawyer and Wanda Bertram and published in time for Mother’s Day. Here is how it gets started: This Mother’s Day — as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to put people behind bars at risk — nearly 150,000 incarcerated mothers will spend the day apart from their children. Over half (58%) of all women in U.S. prisons are mothers,…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Seriously considering resentencing in high-profile Cleveland corruption case (while seriously enjoying rewatching puppet trial parody)

By Douglas Berman

May 2, 2022

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Though the initial federal sentencing of former Cleveland area county commissioner Jimmy Dimora took place a decade ago, I still recall that Dimora received one of the longest prison terms ever given for political corruption. My 2012 post about his sentencing to 28 years in federal prison provides some background on the case, and it notes that his attorneys then argued Dimora should get less prison time due to his ailing physical condition and age. …

Sentencing Law and Policy

Multiple Tennessee executions put on hold as Gov orders "third-party review" lethal injection process

By Douglas Berman

May 2, 2022

Tennessee had multiple executions scheduled for 2022. But, as reported in this post a few weeks ago, the first of these scheduled executions was postponed by the Gov at the last minute because of concerns with the state’s lethal injection process. Now, as reported in this local article, “Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused all executions in the state through 2022.” Here are the details and context: Lee announced the move in a…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Prison Policy Initiative publishes report on "Executive inaction: States and the federal government fail to use commutations as a release mechanism"

By Douglas Berman

April 27, 2022

The main theme of this new Prison Policy Initiative report on clemency (and the lack thereof) is captured in this subtitle data point: “Our survey of eight states found an average of one commutation for every 10,000 imprisoned people each year.” Here are a few excerpts from a new data report that should be read in full: If Biden intends to truly deliver on his promises to enact large-scale criminal justice reform, this set of…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Prez Biden finally uses his clemency pen to grant three pardons and 75 commutations

By Douglas Berman

April 26, 2022

Because I always am inclined to say better late than never, I was quite pleased to wake up to the news that President Joe Biden is finally starting to make good on his campaign promise to “broadly use his clemency power for certain non-violent and drug crimes.” This USA Today piece, headlined “Biden to pardon three felons, commute sentences of 75 others, in first grants of clemency,” provides these details: The nation’s first…

Sentencing Law and Policy

US Sentencing Commission releases FY 2022 first quarter sentencing data (with notably low percentage of within-range sentences)

By Douglas Berman

April 24, 2022

This weekend I noticed that the US Sentencing Commission just published here its latest quarterly data report which sets forth “1st Quarter 2022 Preliminary Cumulative Data (October 1, 2021, through December 31, 2021).” These new data provide another official accounting of how the COVID pandemic has impacted federal sentencing. Specifically, as reflected in Figure 2, while the three quarters prior to the pandemic averaged roughly 20,000 federal sentencings per quarter, the three quarters closing out…