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Dear friend,

FAMM and the U.S. Sentencing Commission need your help! The Commission held a hearing last week on proposed amendments to the compassionate release policy statement. I testified, as did an amazing panel of formerly incarcerated people who received compassionate release.

Now it is time for the Commission to hear from you! The deadline to submit comments is March 14. You can submit your comments by visiting the following site and clicking on "Submission Portal": [link removed] [[link removed]]

FAMM hopes the Commission will expand compassionate release. We are glad the Commission is considering both adding compassionate release criteria and giving judges the same discretion as the BOP in determining when a sentence reduction is warranted beyond those criteria.

We need your voice! Below is a sample message you can adapt and send to the Commission:

Dear Judge Reeves,

I support the proposed amendments to the compassionate release policy statement. I especially urge you to adopt the proposal about changes in the law that would make the sentence unfair. It is important that people who are serving long sentences that could be different today have a chance to make their case to the court and let the court decide whether to reduce the person's sentence.

I also support the other proposed changes to compassionate release, including for public health, for inadequate medical care, for parents or adult children with disabilities who need someone to care for them, and for survivors of abuse.

Finally, please give judges the authority to identify compassionate release grounds other than those you end up describing. We learned during the pandemic that it is impossible for you to describe everything that might move the court to consider lowering a sentence. Those things will be rare, but they will occur.

Thank you for addressing compassionate release and, thank you for considering my views.

Or, feel free to write your own. Either way, if you have a personal story to share, or ways in which compassionate release has impacted you or your loved one, please include that story in the message you send to the Commission! The deadline is March 14, so please don't wait to submit.

You can submit your comment by visiting the following site and clicking on "Submission Portal": [link removed] [[link removed]]

Thank you,

Mary Price [[link removed]]

Mary Price
General Counsel, FAMM

P.S. Here is a link to all the proposals the Commission is considering (compassionate release is the first one): [link removed] [[link removed]]
1100 H Street NW | Suite 1000 | Washington, D.C. xxxxxx | Tel: (202) 822-6700
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