Some additional helpful resources on compassionate release

As regular readers know, I have been making a weekly habit of posting lists of federal court rulings granting sentencing reductions pursuant to what is known colloquially as the federal compassionate release statute (recent examples here and here and here).  I surmise from feedback that these lists serve as helpful resources, and I am happy here to be able note here some additional materials that can aid those seeking compassionate releases.

For starters, the folks at FAMM have long been leaders on this front, and they have collected an extraordinary array of materials at this link.  In addition, the Amend at UCSF has put together here a set of original resources “to aid health care professionals/advocates in requesting compassionate release for incarcerated patients.”  Especially notable are updated versions of a “Compassionate Release Sample Narrative Letter and Checklist Letter.”

Last but certainly not least, I am pleased to report that Michael Gniwisch, a Penn Law student and legal intern at the Aleph Institute, gathered together a number of compassionate release cases from this blog and plugged them into a spreadsheet.  This detailed spreadsheet sorts the cases by district, nature of conviction, time left, illness, outbreak at facility, and exhaustion.  Michael’s helpful work should make it easier for attorneys to find useful precedents, and Michael plans to keep updating the spreadsheet.  I am grateful for his efforts.

UPDATE: I am disappointed I forgot in this initial post to also flag this latest and timely FSR issue and some of the articles therein.  This issue covers, in the words of Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, how “amendments to compassionate release policies and the passage of the First Step Act represented opportunities for the federal prison system to provide relief to elderly offenders suffering ill-reasoned, illogically lengthy terms of incarceration.”