A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Supreme Court's conservative majority is narrowing options for people in federal prisons to get out early. Here's NPR Supreme Court correspondent Carrie Johnson.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Eight years ago, Congress passed a bipartisan criminal justice law that made it easier for federal prisoners to seek compassionate release if they could demonstrate extraordinary and compelling reasons to get out of prison early. Federal judges across the country began to grant some of those requests, about 1 in every 7, sometimes for reasons far broader than old age or terminal illness.
Now the Supreme Court is casting doubt on that approach. Doug Berman is a law professor at the Ohio State University.
DOUG BERMAN: My sense is that a majority of the court is eager to impose some restrictions on the breadth of discretion that district judges would have to reduce sentences.
JOHNSON: In two opinions for the court majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote, a prisoner's personal circumstances, like severe medical conditions, are at the heart of compassionate release. It's got to be something especially unusual and convincing, she wrote. Shanna Rifkin is general counsel at FAMM, a group that supports people in prison and their families. She says the court decisions violate the spirit of the First Step Act, that landmark 2018 criminal justice law.
SHANNA RIFKIN: They're doing their own atextual whittling down of what could be considered an extraordinary and compelling reason. And, you know, that's concerning because it limits people's availability to seek relief for sentences that might be qualitatively unjust at this point in time.
JOHNSON: Rifkin says the whole point of the law was to broaden access for people in custody to request compassionate release directly from judges. And she says the new court rulings could put federal prison officials back in the driver's seat, even though they rarely push to let inmates out early. Cully Stimson is a former prosecutor. He says too many people in prison were asking for compassionate release, based on the idea Congress has eased some harsh sentencing laws in recent years.
CULLY STIMSON: Just because I got a long sentence and I got sentenced according to the law at the time, that doesn't fall under extraordinary compelling reasons.
JOHNSON: Stimson says it's possible prosecutors could seek to send some people back to prison based on the reasoning and the new Supreme Court decisions. But he says that may not be an efficient use of resources for a justice department already depleted by firings and resignations. Carrie Johnson, NPR News.
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