Tweet

Kevin Ring

26 Jun, 9 tweets, 3 min read

The Biden administration last week sent a 76-year-old cancer survivor back to federal prison because she went to a computer class without prior written approval. You read that right. #KeepThemHome / 1 washingtonpost.com/local/public-s…

The fact that Gwen is sitting in DC jail right now is infuriating. She had been on home confinement for a year under the CARES Act & was helping us push the Biden admin to keep the 4,000 people like her home. She had become the face of this effort./2
nbcnews.com/now/video/fede…

We have been telling the Biden team since the transition that they had to do something with this group. Regardless of the OLC memo, these people could not be on ankle monitors for years. That, to clarify my quote in the Post story, is what is contrary to human nature. /3

@Oslerguy

But the administration has done nothing. They have let these people twist in the wind. And now some are being sent back for minor violations. Like @Oslerguy, we have urged the Biden administration to use clemency for these people./4 famm.org/famm-urges-u-s…

Rescinding the OLC memo would do nothing for Gwen now. She is back in prison. We asked BOP HQ to reverse her violation. They said no. This is what is going to happen to people who have been home for a year and are not allowed to leave the house without permission./5

When the Biden team came in, I told families that I thought the admin would resolve this issue. I didn't think they would make 4,000 people - who were deemed safe enough to go to home confinement by Bill Barr - go back to fed prison. I obviously gave them too much credit. /6

The admin's inaction is cruel. Every single day, the people on home confinement have to worry about going back. The admin just says, "Nothing is imminent. We'll decide later." As if that is any comfort. They could announce NOW that they are going to keep these people home. /7

Enough. It's too maddening. And my heart aches for Gwen and her mother. The administration should be ashamed. I get it. They're busy undoing Bad Orange Man's policies. But they've had 5 months to fix this. 4,000 American families are waiting. It's a disgrace.#KEEPTHEMHOME /end

P.S. This is the “escape” BOP charged Gwen with: a weekend computer class run by a nonprofit advocacy group. Her lawyer shared the pic with BOP to no avail. Gwen is now in the DC jail.

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More from @KevinARing

Kevin Ring

@KevinARing

22 Jun

I’m not a Deep State conspiracy guy, but how in the world is the National Association of Assistant US Attorneys a thing? If they simply fought for higher pay and less accountability, which they do, that would be one thing.

But they take positions on national policy. In fact, today, their testimony on the crack disparity begins by saying we don’t take positions on legislation and then proceeds to state all of the reasons they oppose the EQUAL Act.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department, where they work, supports the EQUAL Act. In what other agency does this happen? If the Secretary Blinken testifies in favor of preferred trade status with China, can a bunch of State Dept underlings testify in opposition?

Read 5 tweets

Kevin Ring

@KevinARing

21 Jun

For the past 15 years, no one - NO ONE - has suggested that federal powder cocaine mandatory minimums are too light. Now that legislation has been introduced to make crack sentences equal to powder sentences, some are suggesting the powder thresholds should be lowered. What?!?!

Keep in mind that when the drug safety valve was expanded in the First Step Act just 3 years ago, no one expressed any concern that this would allow more powder defendants to get shorter sentences. (We did hear that about fentanyl.) Most people who support reform acknowledge...

that weight alone isn't a good proxy for culpability or role. So why now do we only hear about the need to toughen powder sentences when an effort is made to adjust crack penalties to equalize them? Seems so disingenuous. Could it be because cocaine is a growing problem?

Read 6 tweets

Kevin Ring

@KevinARing

29 Apr

Women whose husbands were serving time with "Big John" Jackson started to hear things and worry. John's wife Kesha was already worried because she knew John had suffered from blood clots in his leg and now was in the hole, so she had no way to communicate with him.

One of the wives finally reached Kesha. She told her that some of the guys were in the visiting room and saw a man being taken out on gurney. They said it was Big John. Kesha spent the rest of the night frantically calling the prison. No one took her call or gave her information.

Another wife called her and said she heard that John had been banging on his door and asking the guards for help. Kesha couldn't sleep. In the early morning, she kept checking BOP's inmate locator to see if Big John's location had changed. Maybe he'd been moved.

Read 4 tweets

Kevin Ring

@KevinARing

20 Jan

One last kick in the groin from the Trump Justice Department: while the White House was deciding on which 70+ sentences to commute, its DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel put out a memo which could force BOP to bring thousands of people on home confinement back to prison.

This should be stopped and I think it will be. The Biden DOJ can and should rescind the OLC opinion and if necessary Congress could pass a legislative fix. But the OLC memo, dated 1/15/2021, is a poorly reasoned piece of cruelty that could make families worry unnecessarily.

@waltpavlo

When this issue first came up - @waltpavlo reported on a US attorney who suggested people who received extra home confinement under the CARES Act would have to return when the AG declared the emergency over - we reached out to the White House. The White House reached out to DOJ.

Read 8 tweets

Kevin Ring

@KevinARing

20 Jan

@lfrenchnews

@lfrenchnews, this is awful fear mongering. Seriously. I am glad you allowed people opposed to mandatory minimum to state their case, but no one will be able to consider the arguments when you lead with such an emotional crime.
wtvr.com/news/problem-s…

Unless I am missing something, of all the mandatory minimum sentences the legislature is considering repealing, none would have applied in the case you spotlight. The man could have received the same sentence today. Your viewers should be made aware of that.

Also, you have to realize that highlighting the case of one person who re-offended is how the US ended up with the highest incarceration rate in the western world. We simply can't sentence our way to zero risk. If there were some data to suggest that VA judges...

Read 4 tweets

Kevin Ring

@KevinARing

25 Sep 20

I saw an article that expressed skepticism about the First Step Act and success of recent federal reforms. I know being angry about everything is in fashion and that progress is considered problematic in case it breeds complacency, but let's run through some numbers...

The federal prison system is the biggest in the country. In 2013, year 5 of the Obama admin, the fed system ballooned to 219,298 people. Awful. Then, it finally started to fall. Today, the population is down to 155,530 people, a drop of nearly 64,000, which is 29 percent.

Do we want to reduce it further? Of course. Can we? Of course. But a 29 percent decrease in population is a good start. The fed prison population is down 17 percent since Trump took office. (Did anyone predict that? Sure...)

Read 9 tweets

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