Over the past few months, I’ve chronicled the recent operational changes that occurred at FPC Morgantown. To recap: in December, the prison was scheduled to close; in January, inmates were packed and scheduled for transfer; in February, I was to be transferred; and in March, the closure and transfers were paused due to regional restructuring. Now, anyone incarcerated in a federal prison ready to reenter society via a halfway house or home confinement will be substantially delayed! Typically, when someone has 18 months left on their sentence, they are submitted for transition back to the community through a halfway house and/or home confinement. An internal memo was issued this week indicating that due to budget cuts for reentry services less time must be given for halfway house and home confinement. The limit is 4 months for those that complete a drug/alcohol program; otherwise, 2 months is the limit. I do not intend to be confusing with all this information, so here’s a some background of what is happening…
A brief history lesson on recent prison reform laws…in 2007, Congress passed the Second Chance Act, which allowed prisoners to have 15% of their sentence shortened in recognition of good behavior. In addition to having a shorter time, the law indicates that qualifying inmates should have no more than 12 months in halfway house and 10% of their time in home confinement (maximum of 6 months). Per typical bureaucratic protocol, implementation of new laws for prisons takes time (a lot of it)…it took nearly 8 years to fully implement this act. Then, in 2018, Congress passed the First Step Act to focus on giving inmates incentives to complete recidivism reducing programs, obtain compassionate releases, earn time off their sentence by participating in programs (all of this is in addition to the time credits earned from the Second Chance Act). Then, COVID pandemic delayed this implementation. In 2024, the time credits were automated and finalized (6 years later). However, throughout the process, internal memos were sent out to the prison staff that gave directives contrary to the law and to significantly delay implementation, like not to give as much halfway house/home confinement time or delay with giving time credits.
Now, the latest internal memo governs a restriction of either 2-4 months halfway house/home confinement time for all inmates, regardless of the Second Chance Act. For a person that has spent years and years behind bars, 2 months of reentry is simply wrong. Reentry is a time when for a person to acclimate successfully back into society by obtaining a job, maintaining a self-sufficient schedule, and testing his/her ability to function after years of being institutionalized. I must note that currently the Board of Prisons does not have leadership at the national level, so many of the decisions are being haphazardly made by minions trying to prove themselves to the Trump administration. The justification that there’s not enough money in the budget for providing the law-required time to reenter the community is purely absurd. Fact: It costs less money to place convicts in the community (halfway house/home confinement) than it does to keep them in prison. If one were to peel through some of the red tape, it would be clear that this 2 month limitation does not save money but costs more…and if one were to really peel away the tape, then it would be clear this memo is a stunt to provide leverage for contractual re-negotiations between the Board of Prisons and those companies that run halfway houses. This gambit results with inmates (and their families) being used as pawns, which does not only cost much more money but is a complete mockery of the laws that Congress intended to help inmates succeed after incarceration.
Had I never went to prison or been a cog in this system, I never would have cared or had any awareness of its corrupt dysfunction. What is the point of congressional acts aimed toward prison reform when laws are blatantly ignored or skirted by those who lead the system? Convicts broke the law, but what happens when the system itself breaks/skirts the law? While this question may seem obscurely elementary, it beckons some attention. Congressional prisons laws are intended to reform and improve situations while maintaining public safety…but the laws are ignored with the many internal memos with ineffectual justifications not approved by Congress. I really appreciate you taking the time to check-in and allow me to share some thoughts. I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful week and remember to be mindful of any little miracle in your life 🙂