Department of Justice July 17, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Parole Commission is implementing, as an interim rule, an administrative remedy for those parole-eligible District of Columbia prisoners who contend that the Commission's use of the parole guidelines at 28 CFR 2.80(b) through (m) have significantly increased the risk of their punishment in violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution. Under the remedial plan, the Commission will schedule new parole hearings for those prisoners who meet the plan's eligibility criteria, unless the Commission grants the applicant a parole effective date after a pre-hearing assessment on the record. In conducting the new consideration, the Commission will apply the parole guidelines of the former District of Columbia Board of Parole that were promulgated in March 1985 and published in May 1987. The Commission is amending Sec. 2.80 by replacing paragraph (o), which describes a procedure no longer employed by the Commission, with the remedial plan.