BOP Programming With Dr. Alix McLearen
We’ve spent a lot of time running down the BOP, and not without good cause, BUT we don’t give as much attention as we should to the positive things happening inside those walls. Lawyers need to learn about and advocate for beneficial programming placements for clients, especially those with special needs. Therefore, helping us get set…
The BOP Horror Show & What We Can Do About It
It’s not even October yet, but this episode feels tailor made for Halloween. It’s no secret that the BOP is deeply dysfunctional, dangerous, and dehumanizing. And the stories of deprivation and death inside the walls of the BOP abound. But lawyers are not telling these stories enough at sentencing, and as a result, Judges often…
BOP MEANS: Back Off the Punishment: Making the Case That Judges Must Fix the BOP by Imposing Fewer and Shorter Prison Terms
The Bureau of Prisons is dysfunctional, dangerous and dehumanizing. Its failures have been well-documented recently in the press, in OIG reports, and in judicial opinions. But some judges still don’t understand that they have the power and the responsibility to do something about it. Moreover, lawyers don’t always know that BOP dysfunction is powerful sentencing…
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Means “Backwards on Purpose”
What is the purpose of prison? Most people think the very fact of being removed from society, loved ones, and life in general, is the punishment. But that’s only the beginning. Once you get inside the walls of the BOP, the real punishment begins. Intentionally or not, those in charge of BOP facilities make the…
BOP Stands for Big Ol’ Problems: Exposing Dysfunction & Danger at the Federal Bureau of Prisons
Judges routinely hand out prison sentences in white collar/non-violent offender’s cases, believing a client will end up in a minimum security “camp” and that their time there will therefore be less severe, or even “easy”. But, the days of the “Club Fed,” if they ever existed at all, are OVER. Decision makers need to understand…
Surviving Pretrial, Vol. 1: Is My Lawyer Any Good?
WATCH ON YOUTUBE or LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS (or wherever you get your podcasts!) All lawyers are not created equal, and that applies to private practice and public defenders. But clients don’t necessarily understand how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Bilal Khan understands this better than most – he’s been through it all,…
Three Years of Hell: Responding to the Bureau of Prison’s Abysmal Failures in Preventing, Treating, and Reporting Covid.
March 19, 2023 is the 3-year anniversary of the first recorded Covid infection in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. But the true story has not been told of the BOP’s failure to protect inmates and prevent the spread of the virus with all of its deadly, disastrous, and long-term consequences. Therefore, it is imperative that…