Compassionate Release Guideline Amendments
On April 5, 2023, the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) met to formally consider adopting a number of proposed amendments to the federal Sentencing Guidelines manual. The commissioners adopted a number of substantive and technical changes almost entirely by unanimous vote.
The one exception was a new amendment to the sentencing guideline dealing with reduction in terms of imprisonment or more commonly called compassionate release. By a vote of 4-3, the USSC approved a new compassionate release sentencing guideline that could impact thousands of federal prison inmates immediately.
Compassionate release law was significantly changed by the passage of the 2018 First Step Act. For the first time, federal courts could consider a compassionate release motion that was filed by a federal inmate. Before the First Step Act, only the federal Bureau of Prisons could seek compassionate release for sick, dying, or elderly inmates. You can read more about the 2018 changes for compassionate release attorneys in our prior blog posts.
However, there were no changes to the Sentencing Guideline law that deals with compassionate release after the passage of the 2018 First Step Act. Why not? Because the United States Sentencing Commission did not have enough Senate approved voting members to adopt new Sentencing Guideline amendments. That changed in 2023.
The amendments adopted by the Sentencing Commission to the compassionate release Guideline (U.S.S.G. 1B1.13) are the most important “second-look” change to federal law in at least a generation.
At Newland Legal, our attorneys have been fighting for compassionate release for our clients from day one. We are up to date on all compassionate release legal developments and know how to make the most persuasive arguments to help our clients get back home. At Newland Legal, we know that a great compassionate release case starts with understanding your story.
Compassionate Release Guideline Amendments
In order to file a successful compassionate release motion, your loved one must first show “extraordinary and compelling reasons” exist in their case. See 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). What is an extraordinary and compelling reason?
That is what the new compassionate release Sentencing Guideline Amendment addresses. Compassionate release lawyers should read on to learn more about these changes.
The amendments made a number of changes that are too detailed to cover in one place, but they include:
· Allowing inmates to seek compassionate release if they suffer from a long-term medical condition requiring specialized care that is not being provided;
· Allowing inmates to seek compassionate release if they are housed at a prison at imminent risk of being affected by an ongoing outbreak of infectious disease;
· Allowing inmates to seek compassionate release if the caregiver for their adult child disabled child dies or becomes incapacitated;
· Allowing inmates to seek compassionate release if their parent becomes incapacitated and the defendant is the only available caregiver;
· Allowing inmates to seek compassionate release to be the caregiver for other immediate family members who become incapacitated;
· Allowing inmates to seek compassionate release if they were the victim of sexual abuse at the hand of a prison employee;
· Allowing inmates to seek compassionate release for catch-all “Other Reasons” that a court finds are similar in gravity to the specifically listed circumstances;
· Allowing inmates to seek compassionate release for unusually long sentences if they have served 10 years of their sentence and a change in law since they were sentenced creates a disparity between the amount of time they would receive today;
· Allowing courts to consider non-retroactive changes in law when deciding how much time, if any, to take off of an inmate’s sentence.
You can find the full text of the new amendments on the Sentencing Commission’s website or here.
Compassionate Release Lawyer Takeaways:
The net effect of all these changes is that inmates will be able to use a much broader set of circumstances to ask a federal judge to reduce their sentence. The new amendments are clearly informed by the experiences of the COVID-19 global pandemic which struck prisons particularly hard.
Thanks to the hard work of the Sentencing Commission, the hands of federal judges are now finally untied; they can consider many different types of circumstances when evaluating whether compassionate release is appropriate for a particular person. Hopefully these changes will be quickly implemented by federal courts since they do not go into effect until November 1, 2023.
The moral arc of history is long but bends toward justice. The new compassionate release Sentencing Guideline amendments represent a noble large step in the right direction towards justice.
Compassionate release lawyers in federal court
Do you or your loved one in federal criminal court have a compassionate release case? If so, contact the experienced federal defense attorneys of Newland Legal at (303) 948-1489 or by email to zach@newlandlegal.com to discuss your case today.
Contact the attorneys at Newland Legal today if you have a federal criminal court case need and legal help The attorneys at Newland Legal are experienced federal criminal defense attorneys who are not afraid to fight in any federal courtroom across the United States.
