Author: Shy Kalen

In January 2021, The United States Sentencing Commission published a study on Fentanyl and Fentanyl Analogues and their trends.

Through most of 2020, politicians and advocates across the country pushed for more widespread releases of inmates amidst COVID-19 threats.

Was the pat-down a legal stop and did the officers have reasonable suspicion to perform it? The 5th circuit decided not in US vs McKinney.

In December of 2020, the U.S. Sentencing Commission issued a report examining the level of influence guideline ranges imposed in United States v. Booker (2005) still have on sentencing today.

President Trump granted a flurry of clemencies in the form of presidential pardons and commutations of sentence right before Christmas. What does this mean moving forward?

On December 2, 2020, the House Judiciary Committee of Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held an Oversight Hearing on the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Marshal’s Service on how they are managing COVID-19. During this hearing, the committee questioned BOP Director Michael Carvajal and USMS Director Donald Washington on the progression of COVID-19 within their institutions.

"Safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure," - The Bureau of Prisons' mission appears right there on the website. And yet, the BOP's policies regularly endanger inmate safety and humanity, particularly regarding COVID-19 cases.

Tucked into the 5,593 page relief package is a small victory for criminal justice reform advocates: Pell grants for prisoners.