United States v. Ayala
| Decision Date | 16 August 2021 |
| Docket Number | CRIMINAL ACTION 3:01-CR-162-HTW-LGI |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. FIDEL OROZCO AYALA |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Mississippi |
BEFORE THIS COURT is the defendant's Motion for Compassionate Release [Docket no. 61]. Defendant, by his motion, asks this court to reduce his sentence, or to order the United States Bureau of Prisons to allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence on home detention. The United States of America opposes such motion, saying that defendant has failed to meet his burden of proof and that this court does not have the jurisdiction to order home detention. This court has reviewed the submissions of the parties and finds as follows.
On October 21, 2001, defendant Fidel Orozco Ayala (hereinafter referred to as “Ayala”) was indicted and charged with conspiracy to knowingly and intentionally distribute an amount exceeding 500 grams of methamphetamine in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 841 (a)(1). Ayala contested the charge before a petit jury which found him guilty on April 10, 2002. On June, 2002, this court sentenced him to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons (hereinafter referred to as “BOP”) to be imprisoned for life to be followed by a 5 year term of supervised release.
Ayala appealed his conviction, but the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction on September 3 2003.
Ayala next attacked his conviction collaterally on May 23, 2005, by filing a Motion to Vacate under Title 28 U.S.C. § 2255. This court denied Ayala's first Motion to Vacate on March 13, 2007.
On August 30, 2016, this court granted Ayala's Motion to Reduce Sentence due to Amendment 782, which retroactively reduced the United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines base offense level for most narcotics offenses. Under that order, this court reduced Ayala's sentence to a term of imprisonment of 360 months.
Ayala filed a second or successive Motion to Vacate under Title 28 U.S.C. § 2255 on August 21, 2017. This court again denied Ayala's motion to vacate on December 15, 2017.
Ayala is currently serving his federal sentence at North Lake Correctional Institution (hereinafter referred to as “North Lake CI”) located in Baldwin, Michigan and is scheduled to be released on September 10, 2027. North Lake CI is a private correctional facility operated by The GEO Group, Inc..
Ayala, now a fifty-seven (57) year old Mexican male, filed his request for compassionate release with the Facility Administrator of North Lake CI on June 19, 2020. The Facility Administrator of Allenwood FCI denied Ayala's request, stating that due to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (hereinafter referred to as ICE”) detainer[1] placed against him, Ayala's request had to be denied. The letter from the Facility Administrator to Ayala does not have a date.
The government does not contest that Ayala has properly exhausted his administrative remedies as to his Motion for Compassionate Release [Docket no. 61].
COVID-19, an extremely contagious illness, has caused many deaths in the United States in a short period of time and has resulted in massive disruption to the American society and economy. In response to the pandemic, BOP has taken significant measures to protect the health of the inmates in its charge.
BOP has explained that “maintaining safety and security of [BOP] institutions is [BOP's] highest priority.” BOP, Updates to BOP COVID-19 Action Plan: Inmate Movement (3/19/2020). BOP has had a Pandemic Influenza Plan in place since 2012. That protocol is lengthy and detailed, establishing a six-phase framework requiring BOP facilities to begin preparations when there is first a “[s]uspected human outbreak overseas.” The plan addresses social distancing, hygienic and cleaning protocols, and the quarantining and treatment of symptomatic inmates.
Consistent with that plan, BOP began planning for potential coronavirus transmissions in January, 2020. At that time, BOP established a working group to develop policies in consultation with subject matter experts in the Centers for Disease Control. BOP also reviewed guidance from the World Health Organization.
On March 13, 2020, BOP began to modify its operations, in accordance with its Coronavirus (COVID-19) Action Plan (hereinafter referred to as “Action Plan”), to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission into and inside its facilities. Since that time, as events require, BOP has repeatedly revised the Action Plan to address the crisis.
Beginning April 1, 2020, BOP implemented Phase Five of the Action Plan, which currently governs operations. The current, modified operations plan requires that all inmates in every BOP institution be secured in their assigned cells/quarters for a period of at least fourteen (14) days, in order to stop any spread of the disease. Only limited group gathering is afforded, with attention to social distancing to the extent possible, to facilitate commissary, laundry, showers, telephone, and computer access. BOP further has severely limited the movement of inmates and detainees among its facilities. Though there will be exceptions for medical treatment and similar exigencies, this step, as well, will limit transmissions of the disease. Likewise, all official staff travel has been cancelled, as has most staff training.
All staff and inmates have been and will continue to be issued face masks and strongly encouraged to wear an appropriate face covering in public areas when social distancing cannot be achieved.
Every newly admitted inmate is screened for COVID-19 exposure risk factors and symptoms. Asymptomatic inmates with risk of exposure are placed in quarantine for a minimum of fourteen (14) days, or until cleared by medical staff. Symptomatic inmates are placed in isolation until they test negative for COVID-19, or are cleared by medical staff as meeting CDC criteria for release from isolation. In addition, in areas with sustained community transmission, all facility staff are screened for symptoms. Staff registering a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher are barred from the facility on that basis alone. A staff member with a stuffy or runny nose can be placed on leave by a medical officer.
Contractor access to BOP facilities is restricted to only those performing essential services (e.g., medical or mental health care, religious, etc.) or those who perform necessary maintenance on essential systems. All volunteer visits are suspended, absent authorization by the Deputy Director of BOP. Any contractor or volunteer who requires access will be screened for symptoms and risk factors.
BOP stopped social and legal visits on March 13, 2020, and those visits remain suspended, to limit the number of people entering the facility and interacting with inmates. In order to ensure that familial relationships are maintained throughout this disruption, BOP has increased detainees' telephone allowance to 500 minutes per month. Tours of facilities are also suspended. Legal visits will be permitted on a case-by-case basis after the attorney has been screened for infection in accordance with the screening protocols for prison staff.
In addition, in an effort to relieve the strain on BOP facilities and assist inmates who are most vulnerable to the disease and pose the least threat to the community, BOP is exercising greater authority to designate inmates for home confinement. On March 26, 2020, the Attorney General directed the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, upon considering the totality of the circumstances concerning each inmate, to prioritize the use of statutory authority to place prisoners in home confinement. That authority includes the ability to place an inmate in home confinement during the last six months or 10% of a sentence, whichever is shorter, see 18 U.S.C. § 3624(c)(2)[2], and to move to home confinement those elderly and terminally ill inmates specified in 34 U.S.C. § 60541(g)[3].
Congress has also acted to enhance BOP's flexibility to respond to the pandemic. Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), enacted on March 27, 2020, BOP may “lengthen the maximum amount of time for which the Director is authorized to place a prisoner in home confinement” if the Attorney General finds that emergency conditions will materially affect the functioning of BOP. Pub. L. No. 116-136, § 12003(b)(2), 134 Stat. 281, 516 (). On April 3, 2020, the Attorney General gave the Director of BOP the authority to exercise this discretion, beginning at the facilities that thus far have seen the greatest incidence of coronavirus transmission. As of July 29, 2021, BOP has transferred a total of 28, 982 inmates to home confinement.
Taken together, all of these measures are designed to mitigate sharply the risks of COVID-19 transmission in a BOP institution. BOP has pledged to continue monitoring the pandemic and to adjust its practices as necessary to maintain the safety of prison staff and inmates, while also fulfilling its mandate of incarcerating all persons sentenced or detained based on judicial orders.
Ayala filed his motions, citing Title 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) for authority. Section 3582, commonly referred to as the First Step Act, provides:
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