Fast Facts (Full BOP stats can be found here)
Confirmed active cases at 77 BOP facilities and 12 RRCs
Currently positive-testing inmates: 235 (down from 253) Currently positive-testing staff: 182 (down from 191) Recovered inmates currently in the BOP: 47,658 (unchanged) Recovered staff: 14,635 (up from 14,624)
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing inmates:
Leavenworth: 36 (down from 39)
Carswell FMC: 30 (down from 33)
Allenwood Low FCI: 21 (unchanged)
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing staff:
Central Office HQ: 58 (unchanged)
Western RO: 7 (unchanged)
Brooklyn MDC: 6
System-wide testing results: Presently, BOP has 144,687 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 13,866 in community-based facilities. Today's stats: Completed tests: 128,659 (down from 128,663) Positive tests: 55,307 (down from 55,311)
Total vaccine doses administered: 340,885 (up from 340,744)
Case Note: Court grants further reduction granted to defendant convicted in material support case, citing disparity...
In U.S. v. MOHAMAD YOUSSEF HAMMOUD, Defendant., No. 300CR00147GCMDSC, 2022 WL 17326071 (W.D.N.C. Nov. 29, 2022) (Mullen, J.), the court reduces 30 year sentence to 25 for the first defendant convicted of material support at trial because the sentence exceeds current ones for material support, especially when considering the nature of the offense and the post-9/11 context, explaining: "Mohammad Youssef Hammoud, age 49, is a Lebanese citizen serving a 30-year prison sentence for providing material support to a terrorist organization, among numerous other charges. From March 1996 to July 2000, Hammoud and ten others orchestrated a cigarette-trafficking scheme designed to support Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia terrorist organization. ECF No. 1163 ¶ 70. The co-conspirators purchased discounted cigarettes in North Carolina and illegally sold them in Michigan, a state with significantly higher tobacco taxes. … A federal grand jury returned a 78-count indictment against the various conspirators. ECF No. 590 (second superseding indictment). Hammoud went to trial, and was convicted on 14 counts by a jury[.] … At sentencing, the Court imposed a 155-year sentence under the then-mandatory Sentencing Guidelines. ECF No. 906 at 3. The Supreme Court vacated that sentence two years later after deciding Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004). Hammoud v. United States, 543 U.S. On resentencing in 2011, the Court granted a variance and imposed a 30-year sentence. … Hammoud identifies two “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for relief: (1) a disparity between his sentence and other sentences for comparable conduct; (2) the disproportionality in his sentence caused by the application of the “terrorism enhancement. … The Court turns to United States v. McCoy for guidance. In that case, the Fourth Circuit agreed that it was appropriate to consider two distinct features of defendants' sentences in finding extraordinary and compelling reasons. First was the “sheer and unusual length of the sentences” at issue. And second, it was appropriate to consider the “gross disparity” between the sentences at issue, and those now deemed appropriate. Considering these features in the context of Hammoud's case, the Court is persuaded that Hammoud has demonstrated “extraordinary and compelling reasons.” First, Hammoud's 360-month sentence was “sheer and unusual,” even after the substantial variance that the Court applied. Hammoud had next to no criminal history. He committed nonviolent crimes. And yet his sentence was significantly more punitive than the mean federal sentence for murder: 215 months for defendants with a criminal history category of I, and 249 months for defendants in category VI. Hammoud's sentence was also grossly disparate compared to what courts now deem appropriate. Much to his misfortune, Hammoud was the first individual ever to be convicted at trial of violating the material support statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2339B. See ECF No. 1143, 172:6–8. Courts have since imposed more moderate penalties: In fiscal year 2021, the average sentence for material support was 209 months. Similarly, according to a survey of cases from 2010 and 2021 offered by Hammoud, the median sentence for individuals convicted at trial under the statute was 180 months. … However, the government argues that Hammoud's sentence is not disproportionate compared to “similarly situated defendants who have been sentenced in the last several years.” … The Court is not persuaded that those defendants are similarly situated. As Hammoud correctly observes, the defendants in both cases cited by the government were more closely linked to violent activity. The defendant in Kourani, for example, helped to target Israelis in New York for assassination. And the defendant in Rahim actively recruited individuals to commit terrorist acts for ISIS. The Court does not suggest, much less hold, that any individual with a long sentence can obtain a sentence reduction by facile reference to sentencing statistics. But Hammoud's case is particularly extraordinary for two reasons. As discussed earlier, Hammoud was the first individual ever to be convicted at trial of violating 18 U.S.C. § 2339B. See ECF No. 1143, 172:6–8. His was the first terrorism trial to be held after September 11. Id. 185:4–5. In sentencing Hammoud, the Court navigated mostly uncharted waters. … In sum, the Court finds that the disproportionate and disparate sentence that Hammoud received, coupled with the specifics of his case, constitute “extraordinary and compelling” reasons for a sentence reduction.”
Death Watch (Note: The BOP press website announces BOP COVID-related deaths here.) No new deaths within the BOP have been announced, leaving the reported inmate death toll at 309. Eleven of the inmates died while on home confinement. Staff deaths remain at 7.