Dear friend,

The deadline to submit comments in favor of compassionate release expansion is coming up fast! Will you take a moment to contact the U.S. Sentencing Commission? You can submit your comments by visiting the following site and clicking on "Submission Portal": https://www.ussc.gov/policymaking/public-comment

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! The deadline to submit comments is March 14. Submit your comments by visiting the following site and clicking on "Submission Portal": https://www.ussc.gov/policymaking/public-comment

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 — less than a week! — so please don't wait to submit.

You can submit your comment by visiting the following site and clicking on "Submission Portal": https://www.ussc.gov/policymaking/public-comment

Thank you,

Mary Price
General Counsel, FAMM