Thread: Mass release of U.S. prisoners spells deportation for hundreds

Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:27pm EDT

Mass release of U.S. prisoners spells deportation for hundreds

WASHINGTON | BY JULIA HARTE AND JULIA EDWARDS

The exercise yard at San Quentin state prison in California, June 2012.
REUTERS/LUCY NICHOLSON

Almost a third of 6,000 federal prisoners scheduled to be freed between Friday and Tuesday, part of a push to reduce America's soaring incarceration rate, will immediately be turned over to U.S. immigration authorities for deportation proceedings.

While this weekend will be a happy occasion for the thousands of inmates who are U.S. citizens and will reunite with their families, many of the roughly 1,780 foreign inmates to be put on the deportation track will leave family members behind in the United States.
Despite Obama administration assurances that the transfer of ex-convicts into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a routine occurrence, immigrant advocates worry they may not receive due process as they leave.

Most of the foreign inmates are Mexicans, according ICE.

Final deportation orders are in effect for 763 of the foreign inmates, who could be deported within days.

The rest will be transferred to immigrant detention centers to await orders.

The latest mass release, one of the largest in U.S. history, is a result of retroactive reductions to mandatory minimum sentence guidelines for certain non-violent drug offenses.

After those took effect last November, 23,000 prisoners applied for reduced sentences. Judges granted three quarters of the requests, of which this weekend's releases are a portion, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Judges granted the most petitions from inmates who were prosecuted in Texas' western judicial district, 1,048 in all.

About a quarter of western Texas inmates cleared for release are foreign nationals, primarily from Mexico, according to Edgar Holguin, a local public defender who has worked for many who are being turned over to ICE custody.

One of Holguin's clients is a 48-year-old Mexican man who has been living in the United States since he was a child. For him, "the Mexico he is going back to is completely different than the one he remembers," Holguin said.

Ricardo Hinojosa, a judge in Texas and ex-vice chair of the sentencing commission, said last year at a public hearing that many of the deportees "will be tempted to come back, and maybe quicker," because many have families in the United States.

As a result, Hinojosa said at the hearing, "We will see them as illegal reentry cases, to some extent, sooner than one would normally see them."

DUE PROCESS CONCERNS

ICE said its handling of the inmates will be no different than the thousands of deportations it oversees weekly.

Under Democratic President Barack Obama, the federal government has deported more immigrants than under any previous administration, more than 2 million in total.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday wrote to ICE chief Sarah Saldaña, urging the agency to ensure that each inmate entering ICE custody in the current release wave gets due process, including the opportunity to consult an immigration attorney and contest their removal in court.

The "stark contrast" between the fates of inmates who are U.S. citizens and immigrant inmates suggests "a schism between DOJ and ICE policies," said the letter.

In a statement, ICE said it will ensure all immigrants subject to deportation "receive the full process they are due while in removal proceedings and ICE custody," including access to phones to contact attorneys, consulates and legal aid groups.

FAMILY REUNION

That "stark contrast" in the fates of inmates can be seen in Ronald Rogers.

Rogers, 56, was 13 years from finishing a 40-year sentence for dealing PCP when a judge last year granted him early release under the new guidelines. In May, Rogers entered a halfway facility in San Diego. On Friday, he'll be a free man.

"I'm thrilled that for the first Thanksgiving in 28 years we'll be able to sit at the table together," said his sister, Nicole Jackson-Gray.

Most U.S. citizens being released have already moved to halfway houses or home confinement, said the Justice Department, which said those getting early release are a small fraction of the 70,000 federal inmates released annually.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0SO2O220151030

Only hundreds?

Originally Posted by MW

Only hundreds?

Final deportation orders are in effect for 763 of the foreign inmates, who could be deported within days.

The rest will be transferred to immigrant detention centers to await orders.

34 Oregon drug offenders join early release exodus of 6,000 U.S. prisoners


The federal prison complex in Sheridan sits 50 miles southwest of Portland. (Bryan Denson/The Oregonian)


By Bryan Denson | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on October 30, 2015 at 4:07 PM, updated October 30, 2015 at 5:17 PM

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons began to free the first of about 6,000 drug offenders in its custody on Friday, including dozens convicted in Oregon. All were convicted of serious drug crimes, and all are recipients of retroactive sentence reductions approved last year.

Federal judges in Oregon have ordered 34 prisoners cut loose under an amendment to federal sentencing guidelines, although 21 of them are heading into custody of U.S. immigration officials because they are not American citizens, said Thomas H. Edmonds, Oregon's top federal drug prosecutor.

The foreigners are expected to be held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.

"In total, ICE anticipates taking into custody approximately 1,789 non-citizens on October 30 and November 2," said the agency's Barbara Gonzalez, a senior advisor to Latin America, in a written statement. "Seven hundred sixty-three of these individuals have already been issued final orders of removal, while the others are in varying stages of processing and removal proceedings."

Edmonds, quoting numbers from the federal court system, said eight of those prisoners are from Oregon and another five are Americans from outside the state. They will be supervised by U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services.

Another eight Oregonians who were sentenced outside the state also are being released, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which would not provide further information about them, citing privacy concerns.

The sentence reductions were approved last year by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which cut about two years off the sentences of many drug offenders.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-no...ders_join.html

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Final deportation orders are in effect for 763 of the foreign inmates, who could be deported within days.

The rest will be transferred to immigrant detention centers to await orders.

I read that in the article. However, I still suspected there would be a lot more than 763, especially considering the fact that many of the illegals in our prisons should have already been ordered deported once their criminal sentence was completed. The order of deportation should have been given at their original sentencing. Heck, I assumed more than 763 were illegals that had already been deported once before which should make them an automatic deportation upon release.

6,600 federal inmates to be released this weekend

By Jean Casarez, CNN
Updated 9:45 AM ET, Sat October 31, 2015 | Video Source: CNN

(CNN)The biggest federal inmate release on record will take place this weekend.

About 6,600 inmates will be released, with 16,500 expected to get out the first year. More than 40,000 federal felons could be released early over the next several years, the U.S. Sentencing Commission said.

The sentencing commission decided a year ago to lower maximum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and to make the change retroactive, with the inmate releases effective November 1, 2015. Sentences were reduced an average of 18%, the commission said.

Early release will be a challenge for the inmates as well as the judicial bureaucracy.

Housing is a problem

Samuel Hamilton spent 32 years in prison and was let out last year.

"When I was released it was like the stimuli of so many people, just so many people moving at one time and just crossing the street. ... I chose everything with caution," he said.

And even though Hamilton had gotten a master's degree behind bars, it didn't seem to matter when he tried to re-enter the workforce.

"You find yourself not getting the job just because of your criminal history," he said.

But the biggest problem, Hamilton said, was finding a place to live.

"We see so many people coming home without housing," he said.

Most of the inmates will be under supervision, either in halfway houses run by the Bureau of Prisons or by probation officers.

Doug Burris, chief U.S. probation officer for the Eastern District of Missouri, said his district will supervise about 167 inmates and that the influx will be challenging but manageable.

'We have had a full year to prepare'

Two-thirds of those going to the St. Louis area will reside in halfway houses and the rest will go directly into the community.

"We have had a full year to prepare for this," he said. "The U.S. Courts have made it clear that if the workload becomes too strong, that they have supplemental funding. We're optimistic that this is going to work just fine."

Burris said he would like additional funding for drug treatment, job training and more officers. If the inmates break the law, probation officers can petition the court to have inmates' supervision revoked and return them to prison, he said

"We've been down this road twice before," Burris said. "We had two prior crack releases and those went just fine."

Inmates released early don't re-offend at a higher rate than other inmates, the sentencing commission found.

After crack cocaine sentencing guidelines were changed in 2007, a five-year study was conducted. It found 47.8% of crack cocaine inmates who served their full terms re-offended, compared to 43.3% of crack cocaine inmates released early.

What's going on with prison reform in America?

Half of released inmates had cocaine offenses

About half the inmates to be released were convicted of crack and powder cocaine offenses, followed by methamphetamine at 31.2%, heroin at 7.4% and marijuana at 8.9%. About 2.7% of the inmates were convicted of Oxycodone offenses and 1% Hydrocodone offenses.

About 25% of those coming out are noncitizens. In a statement to CNN, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it will take 1,700 of those released into custody by next week.

"Seven-hundred sixty-three of these individuals have already been issued final orders of removal, while the others are in varying stages of processing and removal proceedings," ICE said.

Over the next few years, 20,000 Hispanics will be released, along with 14,000 blacks and 11,000 whites.

The state expected to receive the largest number of inmates is Texas, with 2,829, followed by by Florida at 1,200 and Iowa at 785.

Federal judges held re-sentencing hearings across the country during the last year.

Senior U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein, who presided over thousands of hearings, said he looked at the facts of the criminal's behavior, the inmate's behavior in prison and their family support while assessing whether an offender would be a danger to the community.

"The first question the judge asks himself is, 'If I release this person now or shorten the sentence now, will he be a greater danger to the community?' and the statistics say very clearly no," he said.

'Who's going to watch these people?'

New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the main problem will be finding adequate staffing to supervise the released inmates. Because of the budget resolution in Congress, the parole department cannot hire more parole officers, he said.
"So who's going to watch these people when they go out on parole?" he said. "And that's effectively what's going on, they're going to be out on parole."

With the commission study concluding that getting out early didn't really matter -- the re-offense rate was about the same -- that leaves the question: Who benefits from early release, the Bureau of Prisons or the prisoners themselves?

The Sentencing Commission said that over time, sentence reductions could result in a savings of up to 79,740 bed years.

A bed year, according to the report, is the equivalent of one federal prisoner occupying a prison bed for a year.

The average cost of incarceration for a federal inmate in 2013 was $29,291.25, according to the Federal Register, the daily Journal of the U.S. government.

Based on that average, the total savings to the Bureau of Prisons could be $2.3 billion.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons declined comment for this story.

Out of prison and out of work: Jobs out of reach for former inmates

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/30/us/fed...nmate-release/