AWordPressSite

Rdapdan

Calling a Rose a Rose

“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare wrote. So why does it matter what an inmate filer calls his or her post-conviction motion under 28 USC § 2255? A month before the statutory one-year deadline for filing his § 2255 motion, Richie Elam filed a document he called “Defendant’s Motion Requesting SPECIAL DISCOVERY HEARING to Determine if Level of Court-Appointed […]

Is Taft Prison Closing, and What Does it Mean for You

If you’ve heard about Taft Correctional Institution closing, and wondered if it’s just a rumor, this is for you. Is Taft Correctional Institution closing Taft Correctional Institution is a private prison, owned by Management &. Training Corporation (MTC). The facility can house 2,500 inmates. We received a call from one of our clients who is […]

Prison Good Time: Goldilocks and the BOP

Questions surface about Good Time All of the New Year’s Eve revelers had not yet left Times Square when the first rumor of the new year landed in my email inbox. An inmate reader wrote: “The Bureau of Prisons is saying that even though the law now says that good time is to be applied […]

Earned Time Credits: the Devil’s in the Details

Do you understand Earned Time Credits Probably the biggest selling point used by First Step Act supporters when Congress passed the measure in December 2018 was that the bill would deliver evidence-based programming to reduce recidivism. The inmates would be assessed under a new program that accurately gauged their likelihood to be recidivists and their […]

BOP Rolls Out Final Piece of First Step Act

Congress passed the First Step Act in December 2018. Things come to those who wait. Sometimes good things, sometimes… meh. What was the First Step Act about, anyway It was the first significant criminal justice legislation in 30 years or so. The public relations centerpiece of the Act  was a program to be implemented by the Bureau of […]

Super Bowl Trump Ad Sparks Clemency Debate

President Donald Trump’s Super Bowl ad featuring former federal inmate Alice Johnson fired off a storm of argument last week, about clemency and sentencing reform. But the stats and the stories hardly suggest any change in the broken is coming very soon. Under the Constitution, the President of the United States has the virtually unreviewable […]

The Beginning of a Federal Prison Journey

My journey with the federal justice system started on June 24, 2019. On that day, I was served a 21-count indictment for a crime I helped commit 5 years prior to the indictment. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that this indeed was a crime. I will go […]