Fernandez v. United States · ¶85
Congress took notice. In 2017, a bipartisan group of Senators wrote to the Department of Justice and expressed “dee[p] concer[n] that BOP [was] not fulflling its role in the compassionate release process.” Letter from 12 U. S. Senators to J. Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, & Dr. T. Kane, Acting BOP Director 3 (Aug. 3, 2017) (Letter from 12 U. S. Senators). Several of those Senators worked together later that year to introduce a “bipartisan sentencing and prison reform bill” known as the First Step Act, which passed the following year. 164 Cong. Rec. S7645 (Dec. 17, 2018) (statement of Sen. Durbin); see 132 Stat. 5194. In a section entitled “Increasing the Use and Transparency of Compassionate Release,” the Act amended the compassionate-release provision to allow prisoners to file their own motions for sentence reductions, without approval from the BOP. § 603(b), 132 Stat. 5239.Read in context ›
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