Fast Facts (Full BOP stats can be found here)
Confirmed active cases at 78 BOP facilities and 8 RRCs
Currently positive-testing inmates: 197 (up from 180) Currently positive-testing staff: 136 (down from 138) Recovered inmates currently in the BOP: 46,083 (down from 46,171) Recovered staff: 15,054 (up from 15,052)
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing inmates:
Fort Dix FCI: 21 (unchanged)
Carswell FMC: 18 (up from 14)
Montgomery FPC: 14 (down from 17)
Institutions with the largest number of currently positive-testing staff:
Devens FMC: 9 (down from 19)
Three Rivers FCI: 7 (unchanged)
Carswell FMC: 6 (unchanged)
System-wide testing results: Presently, BOP has 145,388 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 12,568 in community-based facilities. Today's stats: Completed tests: 128,652 (unchanged) Positive tests: 55,300 (unchanged)
Total vaccine doses administered: 347,537 (up from 347,534)
News Note: BOP Cries ‘Uncle’ On Detainer FSA Credit ...
An article in lisa-legalinfo.com titled "BOP Cries ‘Uncle’ On Detainer FSA Credit," explains:
As of a week ago, at least six district courts had granted habeas corpus petitions filed by prisoners denied use of FSA credits because they had detainers.
FSA credits, for those folks tuning in late, are credits awarded to federal prisoners under the First Step Act for the prisoners successfully completing Bureau of Prisons programs that have been determined to reduce the risk of recidivism, such as GED classes, anger management, parenting skills, and drug/alcohol rehabilitation. Prisoners may use the credits to reduce their sentences by up to one year or to get more time in halfway house or home confinement at the end of their sentences.
Despite the fact that Congress wrote detailed instructions into the law about what prisoners were to be excluded from earning FSA credits, the BOP took it upon itself to decide that other classes of prisoners – specifically those with detainers on file from state authorities or federal immigration officials – could not earn FSA credits. Unsurprisingly, a number of inmates filed petitions for habeas corpus with federal courts challenging the BOP’s unauthorized tinkering with the statutory scheme.
Last week, facing the reality that the detailed eligibility requirements Congress wrote into the FSA credit program prevents the BOP from adding its own spin to the standards as a matter of law, the Bureau abandoned its efforts to deny people with detainers the right to reduce their sentence length with FSA credits.
In a supplement to the November 2022 program statement on FSA credits issued last Monday, the BOP issued an updated P.S. 5410.01 deleting requirement that inmates have no detainers or unresolved pending charges, to include unresolved immigration status, in order to use FSA credits to shorten their sentences. Prior to the BOP program statement on FSA credits issued last November, the BOP had ruled that people with detainers or unresolved state charges were ineligible for any FSA credits. In November, the BOP moderated its position, holding that people with detainers could earn FSA credits but not spend them unless they cleared up the detainers.
Last week’s announcement wipes out any BOP resistance to people with detainers getting to apply up to 365 FSA credit to reduce their sentence length by up to a year. The only people ineligible now because of detainers are noncitizens “subject of a final order of removal under immigration laws.” And that is practically no one in the system.
A detainer will still prevent inmates from using FSA credits for halfway house or home confinement. Whether First Step’s detailed exclusions from credit override the BOP’s traditional refusal to give halfway house and home confinement to people with detainers has yet to be decided.
Death Watch (Note: The BOP press website announces BOP COVID-related deaths here.) Today, the BOP announced no new COVID-related deaths, leaving the total number of inmate COVID-related deaths at 312. Eleven of the inmates died while on home confinement. Staff deaths remain at 7.