Could the Bureau of Prisons Determine the Presidential Election?

Wasting Away in BOP Hell

Team,

A little twist here: Below is my latest article. But FOLLOWING the article will be an AI-generated summary of the article.

Let me know in the poll at the end whether this summary is useful to you as a reader.

Best,

Peter Navarro

Wasting Away in a Bureau of Prisons Hell

Little did I know when I went to federal prison in Miami in defense of our Constitution that I would moonlight as an investigative reporter and uncover a $5 billion waste of taxpayer money.  Three months after my prison release, neither the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) nor the U.S. Congress has yet to do a damn thing about this monumental government failure.  

To the contrary.  With a stunning announcement on October 8, the BOP has moved in the OPPOSITE direction, effectively institutionalizing the $5 billion problem. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee is doing what it has done most of the last two years – absolutely nothing but playing political ping pong. 

Here’s the back story: During my prison stay, I discovered that the Bureau of Prisons has steadfastly refused to enforce the 2018 First Step Act, which was passed through the leadership and  “smart on crime” vision of Donald Trump. 

The FSA is designed to address a chronic problem of over-sentencing that arose in the 1990s in response to a crack cocaine crisis and broader drug epidemic.    In shepherding the FSA through Congress, Donald Trump clearly understood this “smart on crime” principle:

When you keep prisoners behind bars longer than necessary to properly punish them and deter future criminal actions, you not only get taxpayer waste.  You also increase the rate of recidivism, particularly with first time, non-violent offenders, and thereby get more crime.

The FSA constructively reduces the time served by inmates through earned credits for good behavior and training.  These FSA credits also accelerate inmate placement into either halfway houses or home confinement to ease  their transition back into society.   

Today, more than five years after the FSA’s passage, the BOP steadfastly refuses to fully implement it.  As a result, more than 60,000 FSA-eligible inmates will spend anywhere from three months to two years longer in the prison system than FSA mandates.

During my Miami prison stay, I met many inmates and their families who continue to get the very short end of the BOP stick.  A poster child now in his 80s is Del Gowing who should have been released in April 2023!  Another, Dr. Armand Abovyan, should have been pre-released to a halfway house in August.

Others wasting away in BOP Hell include Jerome Potter, James Medard, Elliot Smerling, Michael McNew,  Brent Borland,  Taylor Staats, Jose Gonzalez, Roberto Perez II, Daniel Markovich, Mark Thompson, Junior Jean Baptiste, Weslow Caple, Raymond Ramirez, Joshua Grauer, and Ronald Lubetsky. 

The cumulative costs of such BOP malign neglect run up to $3 billion for incarcerating the more than 60,000 FSA-eligible inmates past their FSA due date.  Add another $1 billions in indirect costs associated with the foregone tax revenues from keeping inmates in prison who could otherwise be working.   

Finally, there’s up to one billion dollars in “tax expenditures” providing Food Stamps, housing subsidies, and other forms of welfare to struggling wives and children of inmates deprived of the timely return of their “bread winners.”

The root of this $5 billion problem is a Prison Industrial Complex that profits by keeping as many Americans behind bars as possible.  These vested interests include the BOP administrators, guards, case managers, unit managers, and other staff who work directly for the government and garner faster promotions and more overtime pay with fuller prisons. 

Add to this the private contractors who serve the prison system along with the privatized portion of our prison system, and you have a very formidable roadblock to FSA implementation.  Note: almost 10% of the prison population is held in private facilities while nearly half of the halfway house and home confinement services where much of the FSA bottlenecks lie are privatized.

Only Congress can break the iron grip of the Prison Industrial Complex.  It can do so by forcing the BOP into two simple solutions.

First, too many inmates are being held longer because of a lack of adequate halfway house capacity.  The easy solution which judges have begun to order on a case by case basis is to require the BOP to send any inmate to home confinement if there is a lack of halfway house capacity, e.g., Judge Joseph LaPlante in Leavitt v. Warden (2024). 

This one simple step – which the House Judiciary Committee could force the BOP to take in one hearing -- would result in the immediate release of thousands of non-violent, first time offenders into home confinement and thereby save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Second, the BOP must accurately forecast the release dates using the long promised by as yet undelivered “maximum conditional FTC calculator.”   If the BOP simply obeyed the FSA law and its own policies, thousands more inmates would see freedom, regain full employment, and reunite with their families -- – BOP Director Collette Peters is now the biggest criminal in the our prison system based on the taxpayer waste she is responsible for.

This is a bipartisan issue.  Are you listening Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT)?  Can you hear me Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH)?

Yet, this is also a presidential election issue.  Tens of thousands of family members of inmates across the battleground states may well vote for Donald Trump because he led passage of the FSA. 

These unique swing voters will vote against Kamala Harris because of the BOP’s failure to implement the FSA and because Harris falsely promised to release nonviolent offenders, particularly those jailed for marijuana-related offenses.  With less than 30 days to go, its an issue that could indeed determine the election, particularly if the information in this article is widely distributed.

Peter Navarro served in the Trump White House as  manufacturing czar and chief China Hawk.  He is the author of The New MAGA Deal: The Unofficial Deplorables Guide to Donald Trump’s 2024 Platform.  Follow him at www.peternavarro.substack.com  

Briefing Doc: Peter Navarro's Critique of the First Step Act Implementation

This briefing doc analyzes Peter Navarro's Substack article detailing his experience in prison and subsequent investigation into the Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) implementation of the First Step Act (FSA).

Main Themes:

1. BOP Failure to Implement the FSA: Navarro argues that the BOP, under Democrat leadership, is deliberately obstructing the implementation of the FSA, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill signed into law by President Trump in 2018.

2. Taxpayer Waste and Human Misery: This obstruction, according to Navarro, results in unnecessary incarceration, costing taxpayers billions of dollars while causing immense suffering for inmates and their families.

3. Prison Industrial Complex: Navarro blames the "Prison Industrial Complex," comprising BOP staff, private contractors, and the privatized prison system, for profiting from keeping prisons full and resisting FSA implementation.

4. Call to Action for Congress and 2024 Election Implications: He urges Congress to intervene and force the BOP to implement the FSA fully. He also suggests this issue could sway voters in the 2024 presidential election, favoring Trump, who championed the FSA, and potentially hurting Kamala Harris, who, according to Navarro, made unfulfilled promises regarding the release of nonviolent offenders.

Important Ideas and Facts:

• FSA Benefits: The FSA aims to reduce over-sentencing by offering earned good behavior and training credits. It also facilitates inmate transition back into society through halfway houses or home confinement.

• Scope of the Problem: Navarro estimates that over 60,000 FSA-eligible inmates are unjustly incarcerated, costing taxpayers up to $5 billion. He provides specific examples of individuals, like Del Gowing and Dr. Armand Abovyan, who remain imprisoned despite being eligible for release under the FSA.

• Proposed Solutions: Navarro proposes two solutions:

• Expand Home Confinement: Require the BOP to place inmates in home confinement if halfway house capacity is insufficient. He cites Judge Joseph LaPlante's ruling in Leavitt v. Warden (2024) as precedent.

• Accurate Release Date Calculation: Mandate the BOP to utilize the "maximum conditional FTC calculator" to ensure accurate release date forecasting.

Quotes:

• "During my prison stay, I discovered that the Bureau of Prisons has steadfastly refused to enforce the 2018 First Step Act, which was passed through the leadership and 'smart on crime' vision of Donald Trump."

• "Cumulatively, the cost of such BOP malign neglect directly costs taxpayers up to $3 billion for the more than 60,000 FSA-eligible inmates."

• "This is a bipartisan issue that both sides of the aisle are failing on."

• "Tens of thousands of family members of inmates across the battleground states may well vote for Donald Trump because he led passage of the FSA."

Conclusion:

Navarro's article presents a scathing critique of the BOP's handling of the FSA, highlighting its human and economic costs. His call to action for Congress and his framing of the issue as a potential 2024 election decider underscores his belief in the urgency and political significance of this matter. It's crucial to note that Navarro's perspective is inherently biased due to his personal experience and political affiliations. Further investigation and analysis from diverse perspectives are needed to fully evaluate the extent and implications of the BOP's FSA implementation.