Issues impacting a law firm’s clients
Almost four years after the First Step Act was enacted in December 2018, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has finally adopted a formal policy on how to implement this law passed by Congress that could potentially shorten the sentences of most BOP prisoners. In usual BOP style, the policy is long and complex — but…
If you need a power of attorney form, you don’t have to pay for them. Here’s a durable power of attorney form for Florida, and a revocation form when the time comes to end the power of attorney. I also included a generic power of attorney form that may be used in other states. Florida…
Otober 21, 2022: Doe v. Swearingen, No. 21-10644 (11th Cir.) Reviving a lawsuit against Florida’s sex offender registry, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (overseeing the federal courts in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia) held on Friday that the federal district court in the Southern District of Florida’s dismissal of the lawsuit as…
A federal judge and several other law experts argued in a recent law review journal that the way federal supervised release works is unconstitutional. The big problem, they point out, is that someone can be thrown back in prison for years without ever being charged with a crime or given the protections normally given for…
Is the BOP sending people in halfway houses back to prison because of calculation error in time credits awarded to prisoner for taking certain programs? Not right now. While the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) continues to make a disastrous mess of the First Step Act enacted by Congress in 2018 to help get non-violent…
Ever wonder what it’s like inside a prison bus? While they all look a little different, the common theme is dirty, overcrowded, and uncomfortable. Here’s a look inside a prison bus operated by a private, for-profit prison company. Inmates transported in these buses are shackled, with their hands cuffed to a chain around their waist…
Numerous studies show that laws restricting where sex offenders may live have done nothing to make children safer, and experts say these proximity laws, as they`re called, have actually increased the chances a sex offender will reoffend. Here we take a look at the current status of sex offender residency restrictions. Laws Restricting Where a…
Chester County Court Judge Allison Bell Royer held on August 22, 2022, that Pennsylvania’s sex offender registry laws were unconstitutional, after a remand from the state supreme court. Here’s a snippet from the opinion on why: Based on the evidence of scientific and academic consensus presented, we find that [Pennsylvania’s sex offender registry laws] do…
The Tenth Circuit held in United States v. Adams, No. 21-3043 (10th Cir. July 20, 2022), that because Kansas includes injury to a fetus in its aggravated battery statute, a prior conviction for that offense could not be used to enhance a firearm sentence, even if the prior offense had nothing to do with a…
