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Jan 31 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
#KeepThemHome update: Some folks are getting scared that a recent BOP memo means that certain people on CARES Act home confinement are going to have to go back to prison when the pandemic ends. While that has always been a possibility, I want to share why it's not time to panic.
The original OLC memo was in response to a BOP request for clarification that BOP could bring some people on CARES Act HC back to prison if they thought they would benefit from additional programming, etc. OLC shocked the world in Jan '21 by saying you have to bring everyone back
When OLC revised its memo last month, it said BOP didn't have to bring everyone back - hooray - but that BOP's original interpretation was accurate and that BOP COULD choose to bring some people back. Now a memo from BOP's departing general counsel outlining how they might do...
so is making the rounds and some are getting freaked out by it. I am all for being vigilant, but I am not for unnecessarily scaring people. Right now, this is no longer a legal fight. The Biden admin can do what it wants. AG Garland has already said in testimony that...
bringing people back would be bad policy. Good. BOP's policy argument for bringing people back - weak when they made it originally two years ago. - is even weaker now. No one who's been out and succeeding for two years would benefit from returning to get BOP programming.
That's a bad joke. "Hey, I know you are raising your three kids again full-time, but we want to bring you back in for a parenting class where you watch a corny video for one hour a week." Or "I know you've been sober for two years but we want to bring you back and have you sit...
in prison for a few years until you're eligible for the residential drug treatment program at the end of your sentence." I could go on. It would be absurd. And it would be especially so for a Justice Department that just took the atypical (but correct) step of revising...
an OLC memo! The DOJ is aware of BOP's boneheaded views on bringing people back. They've been aware for two years. Unless or until DOJ expresses support for BOP's bad idea, ppl on CARES Act should keep living their lives. Your continued success is our best case to #KeepThemHome.

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More from @KevinARing

Kevin Ring Profile picture
Jul 25, 2021
The New York Times story last week has generated a lot of buzz about the home confinement issue. For newcomers, here is a get-you-up-to-speed thread. nytimes.com/2021/07/19/us/…
In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act to expand BOP’s discretion to give home confinement in order to combat the spread of Covid. This was smart. Typically, BOP is only authorized to send ppl to home confinement for a bit of their sentence – 6 mos or 10%, whichever is less
The CARES Act authorized DOJ to give more time on home confinement so long as the AG found that COVID was “materially affecting” BOP’s functioning. Barr did that right away and DOJ established strict eligibility criteria – to get extended home confinement, a person:
Read 22 tweets
Kevin Ring Profile picture
Jun 26, 2021
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
Read 9 tweets
Kevin Ring Profile picture
Jun 22, 2021
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 Profile picture
Jun 21, 2021
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 Profile picture
Apr 29, 2021
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 Profile picture
Jan 20, 2021
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.
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

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