Second Chance Act Update

When Congress doubled the available pre-release community confinement in the Second Chance Act, federal defenders hoped to see significant easing of reentry, with earlier family reunification and community-based employment and treatment. These hopes have come to very little because the BOP has continued to follow informal rules that effectively limit pre-release community confinement to six months, rather than the twelve months now permitted under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c). Because an Oregon judge struck down its first SCA regulation for violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, the BOP has submitted for comment the same regulation, again failing to put into effect the meaningful change called for by the statute. Linked here is the Federal Public and Community Defenders' comment calling for the BOP to follow the letter and the spirit of the pre-release community confinement provisions of the SCA. Comments are due by November 21, 2011.

Steve Sady, Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender, Portland, Oregon