Attorneys representing Elijah McClain’s family and the City of Aurora have reached an agreement that the city will pay out $15 million in the civil rights lawsuit filed over McClain’s violent arrest and subsequent death, an official briefed on the matter told ABC News.
This will be the highest police settlement in the history of Colorado, the official said.
The agreement comes over a year after the family filed a 106-page federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado that accused several first responders involved in the incident of violating Elijah McClain’s civil rights and causing his death.
The money will be divided between Elijah McClain’s mother and father. ABC News has reached out to their attorneys for comment.
McClain, 23, was confronted by police on Aug. 24, 2019, while walking home from a convenience store after a 911 caller told authorities they had seen someone “sketchy” in the area.
McClain was unarmed and wearing a ski mask at the time. His family says he had anemia, a blood condition that can make people feel cold more easily.
According to an independent review of his death, officers placed McClain in a carotid chokehold that restricts the carotid artery and cuts off blood to the brain.
The independent review found that McClain had pleaded with officers, crying out in pain, apologizing, and attempting to explain himself.
When EMTs arrived, he was administered a shot of 500 milligrams of ketamine and placed in an ambulance where he had a heart attack, according to officials. He died on Aug. 30, three days after doctors pronounced him brain dead and he was removed from life support, officials said.
The legal battle over McClain’s death is not over: A state grand jury filed a 32-count indictment against the three officers and two paramedics in September, accusing them of several charges, including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
The defendants’ next court date is on Jan. 7, when they are expected to enter their pleas on the charges.
The Aurora Police Association Board of Directors has defended the officers, saying in a past statement: “There is no evidence that APD officers caused his death. The hysterical overreaction to this case has severely damaged the police department.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 767,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 68.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 18, 4:38 am
Disney Cruise Line to require guests ages 5 and up be vaccinated
Disney Cruise Line said it will require all passengers ages 5 and up to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting next year.
Guests who are not vaccine-eligible because of their age will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result taken between three days and 24 hours their sail date.
“We are resuming sailing in a gradual, phased approach that emphasizes multiple layers of health and safety measures, considering guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical experts,” Disney Cruise Line said Wednesday in an updated policy on its website. “Under this guidance, we’ve reimagined your cruise experience so we all can enjoy the magic responsibly.”
The vaccine mandate will take effect Jan. 13 and will apply to sailings both in the United States and abroad.
Currently, passengers ages 12 and older as well as all crew members must be fully vaccinated, while unvaccinated guests ages 5 to 11 must take a pre-departure COVID-19 test.
Nov 17, 6:27 pm
FDA expected to authorize Pfizer, Moderna boosters for all adults soon: Source
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 booster doses for all adults as soon as Thursday, a government official with direct knowledge of the process told ABC News.
That would come in time for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory panel meeting this Friday to discuss booster recommendations regarding all adults for both manufacturers.
The CDC previously signed off on a third dose of both vaccines for certain populations, as well as a booster of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine for anyone 18 years and older.
ABC News’ Eric Strauss
Nov 17, 2:26 pm
Moderna asks FDA to authorize booster for all adults
Moderna has now asked the FDA to authorize its COVID-19 booster for all adults.
Pfizer has already asked the FDA to amend its booster authorization to all adults.
The FDA could make an authorization decision by Friday. The CDC also needs to sign off. The CDC’s advisory committee will meet on Friday to discuss new booster recommendations.
Johnson & Johnson boosters are already authorized for everyone 18 and older.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Nov 17, 1:24 pm
2.6 million kids to be vaccinated by end of day: White House
Nearly 10% of the 28 million eligible 5- to 11-year-olds will be partially vaccinated by the end of Wednesday, White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients said at a White House briefing.
The kids vaccine program has been operational for about 10 days.
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — COVID-19 cases in New Mexico are “trending in a worrisome direction,” health officials said this week, as they called on residents to get vaccinated amid the surge.
New Mexico reported 1,530 new cases and 539 hospitalizations Wednesday, rivaling numbers last seen in December and January, during the state’s last COVID-19 wave.
“Things are not going well in our hospitals,” Dr. David Scrase, acting cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, said during a COVID-19 briefing Wednesday, noting the state is “facing some very serious problems,” including with intensive care unit capacity.
“Last week, we had only eight ICU beds, now we’re up to 10 — still nowhere near enough ICU beds,” he said. “What this does mean is someone having a heart attack right now may or may not have access to ICU care in New Mexico, and frankly, as cases start rising again in other states, we may not find a bed there.”
Six hospitals across the state have activated crisis standards of care in recent weeks, including the University of New Mexico Health System’s and Presbyterian Healthcare Services’ Albuquerque metro hospitals, as they are being stretched to the limit in terms of space and staffing due to increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations and a high volume of patients with acute conditions, officials said.
The decision means that nonessential medical procedures could be delayed by up to 90 days, and patients may need to get treated at different regional hospitals, or possibly out of state, hospital officials said.
Given the high risk for exposure and rising hospitalizations, New Mexico was one of the first in a growing number of states to urge all fully vaccinated adults to get boosters once they meet the six- or two-month thresholds, ahead of federal authorization.
“I want folks to get their boosters,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during the briefing. “Until we get to that 80, 85, 90% of individuals who are eligible for a booster, we are going to see these risks where we have breakthrough infections.”
Over 21% of fully vaccinated residents have gotten a booster dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials have cited waning immunity among fully vaccinated residents as one of the factors fueling the surge in COVID-19 cases, along with transmission of the highly contagious delta variant, increased tourism to the region and colder weather driving people indoors.
Amid the surge, health officials are also focused on getting shots to people who have yet to get a first dose. Unvaccinated residents remain a major driver of transmission and make up the bulk of hospitalizations, with over 71% of new COVID-19 cases and nearly 80% of hospitalizations reported from Oct. 18 to Nov. 15 in unvaccinated people, according to state data.
“Full vaccination is still New Mexico’s first priority,” Dr. Laura Parajón, deputy secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health, said during the briefing. “If you look at the whole of New Mexico, the whole population, 61.4% of all New Mexicans are vaccinated. However, we are having a surge, because 38.6% of people still remain unvaccinated.”
COVID-19 cases across New Mexico are currently “trending in a worrisome direction,” according to Dr. Christine Ross, the state epidemiologist, with the positivity rate at about 12.5%.
“What this means to us is there’s a very high burden of disease in our communities,” she said during the briefing, noting that transmission among school-aged children in particular is “very concerning.”
Over 25% of COVID-19 infections in the past week in New Mexico were pediatric cases, according to Ross. With children ages 5 to 11 newly eligible to get vaccinated, health officials urged parents to get their children vaccinated.
“We know that children are at low risk for serious outcomes, but they are not at zero risk,” Ross said. “These vaccines are safe and highly effective. This is the best tool to protect your kids and to prevent onward transmission of the virus and to help us end the pandemic.”
Scrase said he is excited by the prospect of outpatient oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19, such as molnupiravir, though they’re not available yet.
For now, he urged people to continue to follow measures like social distancing and mask-wearing. New Mexico is one of a handful of states that still have mask mandates in effect. The state’s health department extended an order requiring masks while in indoor public settings through Dec. 10, due to the significant COVID-19 case counts and strained hospital capacity.
Scrase also warned against unproven treatments for COVID-19, noting that New Mexico saw a third death since August from ivermectin, an anti-parasite medicine that is not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19. The man took 150 milligrams of a horse formulation of ivermectin and suffered from liver and kidney failure, according to Scrase.
Health officials said they’re continuing to work with community health workers and local organizations to combat misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.
“We’re really trying to meet people where they’re at,” Parajón said.
(PAUMA VALLEY, Calif.) — The key to helping curb greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture industry may be hidden just beneath the surface.
While in the past century farming has transformed to be faster and on a larger scale, the newfound efficiency came at a cost to the environment. Farmers extracted more nutrients from the soil than what was being replaced, and the fertilizers used to aid crop growth are responsible for one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions from global agriculture industry, according to experts.
In the U.S. alone, the use of nitrogen fertilizers are responsible for about 195 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, comparable to the emissions of 41 million passenger vehicles per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Some farmers believe the solution to making the agriculture industry more environmental-friendly lies in revitalizing the soil in which they grow crops, rather than traditional methods, such as fertilizer and conventional tilling.
One of the ways to do this is the no-till method, an old practice where the soil structure is not disturbed, experts and officials say. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, continuous no-till practices can save money, improve soil health and conserve resources such as fuel and labor investments. Practicing no-till management for multiple years allows fields to have a higher water holding capacity than conventionally tilled fields, which is particularly important in areas prone to drought, according to the USDA.
And the agency has said that soil disturbance stimulates the microbes that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Adoption of the method, which the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has encouraged, has been increasing, about 8% from 2012 to 2017 according to the latest Census of Agriculture, and accounted for more than 100 million acres. Intensive tillage declined 35% during the same time.
‘Healing process’
It is important for farmers to look at their land and pay attention to “what it’s telling you,” Nan Cavazos, co-owner of Solidarity Farm in Pauma Valley, California, told ABC News. That includes looking at what kind of weeds are growing and improving the health of the soil based on that, he added.
“When you touch the soil, there’s a healing process that happens between soil and humans,” Cavazos said.
Workers at Solidarity Farm stopped plowing the soil in order to encourage more resilient arable land — so that the soil can “hold life” and create better quality crops, Cavazo said. Tilling destroys the soil structure, which makes it difficult for organisms in the soil to survive, Leah Penniman, co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm, a New York-based farm committed to social justice and ending racism in the food industry, told ABC News.
“And if the soil holds life, it’s easier for growing produce, and probably healthier produce,” he said.
As the effects of climate change intensify and threaten future food supplies, young farmers are reimagining their farms to withstand the increase of natural disasters, Sophie Ackoff, co-executive director of the Young Farmers Coalition, told ABC News. They think about conservation as they build their businesses, such as capturing water in the soil to prepare for a hotter and drier future, Ackoff added.
“Young farmers are imagining farming their entire lives in climate change conditions,” Ackoff said. “They’re already experiencing climate change on their farms.”
The variable climate in Southern California, which can include days ranging from 60 to 100 degrees, depending on the time of year, can have a detrimental effect on number and quality of crops, Cavazos said.
“Which makes it really hard for certain crops, you know?” Cavazos said. “The crops are all happy and then at a sudden, like, the sun comes out, and you’re like, ‘Whoa. What just happened?”
‘Cushion’ of protection
Beds of soil that are well-nourished can resist harsher temperatures and are more resilient to the heat because there is a “cushion” of protection, Cavazos said.
Diversifying the number of crops also makes for healthier soil, Cavazos said, adding that his farm grows between 50 and 60 different types of vegetable crops every year.
MORE: Eating sustainably is one of the easiest ways to combat climate change, experts say
Industrial and corporate agriculture prioritize efficiency, and the current food and much of the agriculture system in the U.S. is a result of decades of federal farm policies that incentivized industrialization and consolidation, Ackoff said.
“As soon as you take a step back and look at a five or five year or more timespan, you’ll see that this system is not very resilient,” Penniman said. “If there’s a drought, if there’s a flood or hurricane, heat wave, pest outbreak, that system starts to break down because it has such a narrow margin of conditions in which it can be successful.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Regenerative agriculture is an indigenous practice of farming that improves the land that is being utilized, Penniman said. The methodology involves leaving the soil better than it was found, she added.
“Take care of your soil, take care of your place, and it will take care of you,” he added.
(KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis.) — Two people were arrested Wednesday outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, where protesters have gathered while awaiting a verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial, authorities said.
A 20-year-old man was arrested for battery, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, while a 34-year-old female was arrested for disorderly conduct, according to the Kenosha Police Department.
“During the arrests law enforcement needed to deploy several officers to keep crowds of citizens and media from interfering,” the department said in a statement.
After hearing two weeks of testimony and closing arguments, the Kenosha County Circuit Court jury started deliberating Tuesday in the closely watched trial. After two full days, deliberations will resume Thursday.
Amid the wait for a verdict, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers had made a plea for peace Tuesday, calling for people to assemble “safely and peacefully” in Kenosha.
“Kenoshans are strong, resilient, and have worked hard to heal and rebuild together over the past year,” he tweeted Tuesday. “Any efforts to sow division and hinder that healing are unwelcome in Kenosha and Wisconsin. Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state.”
Ahead of the verdict, Evers had previously authorized about 500 National Guard troops to be on standby to support public safety efforts if needed.
Local authorities said they “recognize the anxiety” surrounding the trial, but are not issuing a curfew or road closures at this time.
“Our departments have worked together and made coordinated efforts over the last year to improve response capabilities to large scale events. We have also strengthened our existing relationships with State and Federal resources,” the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department and Kenosha Police Department said in a joint statement Tuesday. “At this time, we have no reason to facilitate road closures, enact curfews or ask our communities to modify their daily routines.”
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
The charges stem from the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and a shooting that left 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz wounded during riots that erupted in Kenosha last year over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Those gathering outside the courthouse have included members of Blake’s family and Black Lives Matter activists, calling for justice for the three men shot, as well as Rittenhouse supporters — among them Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home last year.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson and Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — In a high-stakes move, Travis McMichael, the man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, took the witness stand in his own defense Tuesday afternoon.
The 35-year-old McMichael was the first defense witness called to testify a day after the prosecution rested its murder case against him, his 65-year-old father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 53.
Under questioning from his attorney, Jason Sheffield, Travis McMichael began his testimony by saying he was aware he had no obligation to testify.
“Do you want to testify?” Sheffield asked.
Travis McMichael responded, “I want to give my side of the story. I want to explain what happened and to be able to say what happened from the way I see.”
The McMichaels and Bryan have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
The defense began putting on its case after Judge Timothy Walmsley rejected each defendant’s request to acquit them after their lawyers argued the state had not met its burden of proof.
Crime spike in Satilla Shores
Travis McMichael testified that when he first moved into his parents’ home in the Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia, the waterfront community was mostly peaceful, full of retirees and young families with children.
“It’s one of the typical small-town neighborhoods,” he said. “You’d have people ride around golf carts, people walking dogs, people with their kids, the little power wheels… And it’s just a real quiet community.”
But Travis McMichael testified that after moving to Satilla Shores, he and his neighbors began to experience a crime wave with frequent burglaries and “more suspicious persons lurking around.”
“It was rare at first, but it started building up,” he said of crime in Satilla Shores.
He said his own car was burglarized multiple times to the point he would just leave it unlocked. He also said a Smith & Wesson pistol was stolen from his truck parked outside his parents’ house on Jan. 1, 2020.
Travis McMichael said the crime spike was the talk of his household and became a major topic of discussion among his neighbors and on a community watch Facebook page.
Coast Guard training
Sheffield then asked Travis McMichael about his background as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard between 2007 and 2016. He said he had extensive training in law enforcement, including the use of deadly force and de-escalation, while in the Coast Guard and that besides his primary job as a mechanic, he also participated in search-and-rescue operations, and immigration and drug enforcement operations.
He said one de-escalation technique he was trained to do was to use a firearm as a deterrent.
“You pull a weapon on someone from what I’ve learned in my training that usually causes people to back off or to realize what’s happening,” McMichael testified.
He added that on two occasions as a civilian he once scared off would-be robbers at an ATM machine and on another occasion deterred a potential carjacker.
He said that as part of his training in the military he also learned never to let someone take his gun in a confrontation because if that occurs they could use it to harm him and others.
Encounter with prowler
Sheffield directed Travis McMichael’s attention to an incident that occurred on Feb. 11, 2020, twelve days before the fatal encounter with Arbery.
He testified that he was driving to get gas when he saw a man dart across the road in front of him and start “creeping through the shadows” outside a home under construction down the street from his parent’s house.
“I got out of the vehicle to ask him what he was doing, maybe run him off,” Travis McMichael said.
He said the man came out of the shadows toward him.
“He pulls up his shirt and goes to reach for his pocket or his waistband area,” he testified. “It startled me. It freaked me out.”
He testified that he went home and called 911, armed himself and returned to the house with his father, but the prowler had vanished.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 57 years after the assassination of Malcolm X in the New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is moving to vacate the convictions of two of the men convicted as accomplices, his office said Wednesday.
Muhammad Aziz, now 83 and previously known as Norman Butler, spent 22 years in prison before he was paroled in 1985. A co-defendant who also maintained his innocence, Khalil Islam, died in 2009. Confessed assassin Thomas Hagan had long said neither man participated in killing Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965.
Vance’s office, along with the Innocence Project and civil rights attorney David Shanies, began reexamining the investigation last year.
“The assassination of Malcolm X was a historic event that demanded a scrupulous investigation and prosecution but, instead, produced one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice that I have ever seen,” Barry Scheck with the Innocence Project said in a statement Wednesday.
A spokesman said the FBI cooperated with the district attorney’s review.
Vance, Shanies Law and Innocence Project will file a joint motion on Thursday to vacate the 1966 convictions.
“The joint motion is the culmination of a collaborative reinvestigation of the case which began in January 2020 and unearthed new evidence of Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam’s innocence, including FBI documents that had been available at the time of trial but were withheld from both the defense and prosecution,” the lawyers for Aziz and Islam said in a statement Wednesday.
This past February new questions were raised about the NYPD’s handling of the investigation after a letter surfaced that had been written by a former New York City Police Department officer on his death bed.
On Jan. 25, 2011, Ray Wood, who was serving as an undercover police officer on the day of Malcolm X’s death, wrote a letter in which he admitted he “participated in actions that in hindsight were deplorable and detrimental to the advancement of my own black people.”
When Wood was hired by the NYPD in 1964, his job was to “infiltrate civil rights organizations” to find evidence of criminal activity so the FBI could discredit the subjects and arrest its leaders, Wood wrote in the letter obtained by ABC News.
Wood’s handler devised the arrest of two of Malcolm X’s “key” security detail members in a plot to bomb the Statue of Liberty days before his 1965 assassination, Wood wrote.
“It was my assignment to draw the two men into a felonious federal crime, so that they could be arrested by the FBI and kept away from managing Malcolm X’s door security on February 21, 1965,” Wood wrote. “… At that time I was not aware that Malcolm X was the target.”
Wood wrote that, as he faced failing health, he was concerned that the family of Thomas Johnson, one of the men convicted of killing Malcolm X, would not be able to exonerate him after Wood died. Johnson was arrested at the Audubon Ballroom the night Malcolm X was killed to protect Wood’s cover and “the secrets of the FBI and NYPD,” Wood wrote.
Wood placed his full confession into the care of his cousin, Reginald Wood Jr., and requested that the information be held until after his death.
“Muhammad’s and Khalil’s convictions were the product of gross official misconduct and a criminal justice system weighed against people of color,” Their exoneration was decades in the making and is proof that we need—and are able—to do better.” Deborah Francois, Shanies Law, said in a statement Wednesday.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 766,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 68.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Moderna asks FDA to authorize booster for all adults
-27 states see at least 10% jump in daily cases
-FDA may issue guidance on boosters for adults as soon as this week
-Pfizer asks FDA for COVID-19 pill authorization
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 17, 2:26 pm
Moderna asks FDA to authorize booster for all adults
Moderna has now asked the FDA to authorize its COVID-19 booster for all adults.
Pfizer has already asked the FDA to amend its booster authorization to all adults.
The FDA could make an authorization decision by Friday. The CDC also needs to sign off. The CDC’s advisory committee will meet on Friday to discuss new booster recommendations.
Johnson & Johnson boosters are already authorized for everyone 18 and older.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Nov 17, 1:24 pm
2.6 million kids to be vaccinated by end of day: White House
Nearly 10% of the 28 million eligible 5- to 11-year-olds will be partially vaccinated by the end of Wednesday, White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients said at a White House briefing.
The kids vaccine program has been operational for about 10 days.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Nov 17, 12:43 pm
27 states see at least 10% jump in daily cases
The Northeast and Midwest have seen the greatest increase in cases and hospitalizations as the weather gets colder and people head indoors, according to federal data.
Twenty states have reported at least a 10% increase in hospital admissions over the last week: Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
Twenty-seven states have seen at least a 10% jump in daily cases over the last two weeks: Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, New York City, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 17, 12:28 pm
Kansas, Maine offering boosters to all adults
All fully vaccinated adults in Kansas and Maine can now get a booster if it’s been six months since their Pfizer or Moderna dose or two months since their Johnson & Johnson shot, the governors said.
“Expanding access to booster shots will help us put an end to this deadly pandemic,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said in a statement.
Nirav D. Shah, director of the Maine CDC, said, “Given the high level of COVID-19 transmission occurring in Maine, we want Maine people to be clear that all adults are now eligible for a booster.”
Booster eligibility has been expanded to all adults in several other states, including New York, New Jersey, Arkansas and Colorado.
(NEW YORK) — Sixty-thousand inmates potentially did not properly receive credits for time served under the First Step Act’s recidivism programs, the Department of Justice inspector general found.
“We are concerned that the delay in applying earned time credits may negatively affect inmates who have earned a reduction in their sentence or an earlier placement in the community,” Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote in the report released Tuesday.
The inspector general also found that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) failed to incentivize or reward inmates who completed First Step-related programs.
After the implementation of the sweeping First Step Act, a recidivism program was put into place with time-served credit for inmates who completed it.
The BOP told the inspector general the credits weren’t applied because they “must be negotiated with the national union because it would create changes to conditions of employment, including determinations and application of earned time credits for inmates, for Unit Team staff working in BOP institutions who are bargaining unit employees,” according to the report.
The DOJ report noted that a lack of in-person negotiations with BOP union members slowed the implementation of the act and inspector general recommendations. BOP union negotiations weren’t taking place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite BOP staff going into federal prisons across the country.
The Bureau of Prisons union has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
“BOP disagrees with OIG’s characterization of the agency’s delayed implementation of FSA requirements,” the Bureau of Prisons wrote in a written response attached to the report. “Although the COVID- 19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for the federal government, BOP has taken significant steps in implementing the FSA’s requirements, consistent with the FSA’s phased approach, and has complied with all mandatory statutory guidelines to-date.”
On Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin called for Attorney General Merrick Garland to dismiss BOP Director Michael Carvajal after The Associated Press released a report detailing an amalgamation of federal charges against BOP employees.
“Director Carvajal was handpicked by former Attorney General Bill Barr and has overseen a series of mounting crises, including failing to protect BOP staff and inmates from the COVID-19 pandemic, failing to address chronic understaffing, failing to implement the landmark First Step Act and more,” Durbin said. “It is past time for Attorney General Garland to replace Director Carvajal with a reform-minded director who is not a product of the BOP bureaucracy.”
The Bureau of Prisons has been under scrutiny for more than half a decade for a multitude of issues.
Following the suicide of Jeffery Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, there were calls to revamp BOP totally, and former Attorney General Barr brought in former Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer to run the agency. After she left, Caravajal took over.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 57 years after the assassination of Malcolm X in the New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is moving to vacate the convictions of two of the men convicted as accomplices, his office said Wednesday.
Muhammad Aziz, now 83 and previously known as Norman Butler, spent 22 years in prison before he was paroled in 1985. A co-defendant who also maintained his innocence, Khalil Islam, died in 2009. Confessed assassin Thomas Hagan had long said neither man participated in killing Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965.
Vance’s office, along with the Innocence Project and civil rights attorney David Shanies, began reexamining the investigation last year.
There’s a hearing Thursday at which the two convictions are expected to be thrown out.
