Readout of Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Marshall Miller’s Trip to San Francisco and San Diego

This week, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General (PADAG) Marshall Miller traveled to San Francisco and San Diego to highlight the Justice Department's efforts to uphold the rule of law through its corporate criminal enforcement program and through its commitment to ensuring robust access to counsel for federal criminal defendants.

On Wednesday, March 6, in San Francisco, PADAG Miller participated in a panel of Enforcers and Regulators at the American Bar Association's 39th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime - a panel which also included Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Department's Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey for the Northern District of California, and the enforcement directors of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In his remarks, PADAG Miller outlined the Justice Department's approach to corporate criminal enforcement: holding individuals accountable; targeting resources to combat the most serious white-collar criminal conduct; and pursuing tough penalties for repeat corporate offenders. PADAG Miller also previewed Deputy Attorney General (AG) Monaco's announcement of a new Justice Department whistleblower rewards program.

On Friday, March 8, PADAG Miller led an access to counsel stakeholder convening at Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) San Diego, providing opening remarks and facilitating a wide-ranging stakeholder conversation. PADAG Miller was joined at this event by representatives from the leadership teams at the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) and the Office of Access to Justice (ATJ), as well as U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath for the Southern District of California and leadership representatives from the Federal Defenders of San Diego, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. District Court, and U.S. Probation Office, among others. This meeting was the last in an annual series of 10 convenings on access to counsel at pretrial detention facilities across the FBOP.

PADAG Miller's visit to MCC San Diego follows a comprehensive, 100-day review of practices and policies related to access to counsel in FBOP's 10 pretrial facilities, launched by Deputy AG Monaco last year. Coming out of that review, on July 21, 2023, Deputy AG Monaco issued a groundbreaking Report and Recommendations Concerning Access to Counsel at the Federal Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) Pretrial Facilities (the "Report"). The Report provided over 30 recommendations for BOP to further safeguard the right to counsel in its pretrial facilities, including the recommendation to convene annual meetings of local stakeholders to "assess legal correspondence, discovery, visiting, and other pertinent legal access challenges at pretrial facilities and to identify solutions."

During the San Diego convening, PADAG Miller stressed the importance of local, cross-agency participation in the Department's ongoing efforts to protect the right of access to counsel in federal facilities. He also highlighted several access to counsel reforms that the Department has implemented since the Report's publication. Those reforms included, among other recommendations, policy authorizing defense practitioners to bring laptops for legal visitations at all pretrial facilities and guidance standardizing the rules for legal visits by non-attorney legal staff.

Following the convening, PADAG Miller toured MCC San Diego, accompanied by U.S. Attorney McGrath, as well as representatives from FBOP and ATJ. The tour inspected the facility's newly constructed legal visitation pods and counsel consultation phone booths, which provide additional confidential spaces for legal visits and calls with counsel. After departing the BOP facility, PADAG Miller visited both the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California and the Federal Defenders of San Diego, where he met with office leadership and staff for further conversation on access to counsel and other topics. At the U.S. Attorney's Office, PADAG Miller thanked U.S. Attorney McGrath, her leadership team, and office personnel for their hard work in fulfilling the Department's mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect civil rights.