Veronica Crowe, a 50-year-old grandmother serving a long federal prison term on drug charges, eagerly enrolled in programs to cut her time behind bars — and was told she was eligible for release in May under a landmark sentencing reform law passed in 2018.
But this year, as she prepared to leave a prison camp in Florida, Ms. Crowe got devastating news: She would remain incarcerated until mid-2025 because the Bureau of Prisons simply did not have a slot for her in a halfway house or in its home detention programs.
Tens of thousands of federal prisoners deemed to be at low risk of committing crimes again have found themselves in a similar predicament, languishing in lockup for as long as a year after they reached their official release date under the First Step Act, which intended to create a fast-track pathway to release.
On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Crowe and other people in a similar situation, arguing that the bureau is flouting the law by detaining them beyond their calculated release dates.
“Time is what I owed for my wrongdoing, and I have paid my time, but I should not have to spend more time in prison than the law allows,” Ms. Crowe, who is finishing out a 10-year stretch at Federal Correctional Institution, Marianna, a medium-security prison outside of Tallahassee, Fla., wrote in a deposition.
Bureau officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But in the past, they have conceded that the First Step Act’s provisions have overwhelmed their capacity to process prisoners. Under the law, inmates can accrue credit toward accelerated release by enrolling in a range of education, behavioral, substance abuse treatment and vocational programs.
Questioned about the delays before a House committee hearing in July, Colette S. Peters, the bureau’s director, acknowledged the challenges.
“There’s a lot of frustration with the adults in custody,” she said, adding, “We simply don’t have the capacity in the community” to process all of the inmates granted early release under the law.
The bureau’s budget has flatlined in recent years. That has left an agency already grappling with chronic staffing shortages without the necessary funding to increase staffing to process early releases, monitor former inmates placed in home confinement or to hire private contractors to run halfway houses.
The shortfall has been exacerbated by the long and complicated process of awarding contracts to private vendors who run transitional housing programs, bureau officials have said.
The A.C.L.U., in its lawsuit, acknowledged the challenges faced by the system, but accused the bureau of treating the law as optional, rather than compulsory.
To make that case, the plaintiffs cited the bureau’s decision to change the word “shall” in the law to “may” in the regulations to enact it.
“This difference is not academic — it affects real people, every day,” lawyers for the A.C.L.U. wrote in an 18-page lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court of Washington. “For thousands of individuals, the B.O.P.’s unlawful regulation has already translated into additional time in prison beyond what the law allows. And it continues to affect thousands of individuals every year.”
The First Step Act created a system of earned time credits for prisoners who participated in programs found to reduce recidivism. Inmates can shave off 10 days from their sentence for every 30 days spent in such programs. People convicted of homicide, threats to public officials, terrorism-related offenses and other serious offenses are not eligible.
The lawsuit includes testimonials from prisoners, who seized on the opportunity presented by the law, only to face crushing disappointment.
Glen Galemmo, a 59-year old serving a 10-year prison term in South Carolina for wire fraud and money laundering, was initially told he was eligible to be released in July — but that date was pushed back to May 2025.
Mr. Galemmo, who has developed a serious kidney condition in recent years, said the delay had created a serious hardship for his family, which needs his help and income.
“My wife of 36 years is currently providing care for her father, who is in the late stages of pancreatic cancer,” he told the A.C.L.U. in a transcribed phone call from prison this month. “Simultaneously, she is supporting our daughter, who is escaping an abusive marriage and finalizing her divorce.”
In part, the A.C.L.U. filed lawsuit the Friday afternoon leading into Christmas — rather than after the new year — because it hoped to prod officials to release Ms. Crowe by her newly calculated release date of New Year’s Eve, lawyers said.
“My heart was constantly pounding with excitement at the thought of such times that were just around the corner,” she wrote about the possibility of spending the holidays at home with her family.
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