Off Paper – Episode 24: An Extraordinary and Compelling Compassionate Release Story

A transcript of this podcast is available at https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/fil...

Episode 24: Dani Hourani served twenty-eight years of a mandatory life sentence before being granted compassionate release on the basis of “extraordinary and compelling reasons” under the First Step Act. Dani is now Director of Community Development for Team Wellness Center, a provider of social and health care services to the Detroit area’s low-income community, including wrap-around services for returning citizens. We hear Dani’s story through his voice and those of his case’s lead prosecutor, the sentencing judge, Dani’s defense attorney, and the chief U.S. probation officer and intensive supervision probation officer specialist who supervised him after his release. Dani also discusses what can be done to enable others like himself to return successfully to their communities.

Off Paper: The Criminal Justice Podcast from the FJC focuses on issues of federal criminal justice and, more specifically, how those issues affect probation and pretrial services officers and their clients. When an individual has finished serving any time and successfully completed release requirements, that person is “off paper.”