Legal Commentary

BOP Sometimes Leaves the Driving to Greyhound: So What?

By TChris

The latest round of Republican fear-mongering (preemptively embraced by the Harry Reid gang) predicts catastrophe if Guantanamo's involuntary residents are imprisoned within the nation's borders. Those who fear that American prisons aren't up to the task of detaining foreign suspected terrorists will likely feel their personal threat levels rise when they read that the Bureau of Prisons routinely transfers prisoners by buying them a bus ticket and sending them on their way to their new destination.

This AP story opens with the news that a 55 year old motorcycle gang member who finished half of his 24 year sentence for delivering cocaine got off the bus in Las Vegas, didn't get back on, and hasn't been recaptured. Losing the biker dude in 2004 must be a bit embarrassing for the U.S. Marshals, who clearly did not know he had $12,000 stashed in a Vegas bank.

Only after reading more than halfway through the story do we learn that more than 90 percent of federal inmates who travel by Greyhound are on their way to a halfway house. It makes no sense to assign federal marshals to supervise the travel of an inmate who can easily flee once he's dropped off at his destination. [more ...]

The AP story doesn't mention this, but some federal defendants who are sentenced to relatively short terms for nonviolent crimes are allowed to self-report. A few weeks after they're sentenced, the Bureau of Prisons tells them to show up at a designated facility (usually a prison camp) by their report dates. They nearly always do.

By the same token, federal inmates who take Greyhound cross-country (talk about torture!) pose a low risk to abscond. They're usually nearing the end of their sentences and are disinclined to live a fugitive life while risking capture, a return to a prison with a higher security level, and a consecutive sentence for escape. Fewer than 1 in 500 unescorted inmates have failed to complete their transfers, and all but 19 of the 77 unescorted inmates who boogied between October 2003 to September 2005 were recaptured.

Inmates with a history of violence are transferred the old fashioned way: in chains. Losing 19 nonviolent prisoners over the course of two years isn't ideal but it isn't anything to get jittery about. Dick Cheney's ongoing liberty poses a greater threat to society, and if Harry Reid's gang ever musters up the courage to allow Guantanamo prisoners to be transferred to federal prisons, the BOP won't be issuing them bus tickets.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 23, 2009 (boomark / email).