Prof. JaneAnne Murray and the Clemency Project Clinic Submit Amicus Brief in Eighth Circuit

Prof. JaneAnne Murray and the Clemency Project Clinic submitted an amicus brief in the Eighth Circuit addressing the criminal justice reforms in the First Step Act of 2018 ("FSA").  The defendant in the case had accumulated credits based on rehabilitation programming that, according to the FSA, entitled him to immediate transfer to home confinement.  The Bureau of Prisons, however, has not effectuated that transfer, despite the fact that the FSA uses the mandatory word "shall."  The Clinic's brief, authored by five clinic students, Ellen Bart '26, Annemarie Foy '26, Kylie Lewis '26, Bekah Muta '26, and Kate Reifenberg '27, outlined the legislative history of this landmark and bi-partisan piece of reform legislation, pointing out that its goal of incentivizing participation in recidivism-reduction programs and activities necessarily requires the prompt transfer of eligible individuals to prerelease custody or supervised release. 

Moreover, the brief adds that Congress’s confidence in the value of FSA programming and the reduction in prison-time credits it grants participants is borne out by the statistics relating to the recidivism of individuals released under the FSA: "Not only does this cohort of prisoners have significantly low rates of recidivism, they have lower rates of recidivism than similarly-situated individuals released prior to the FSA."