Biden Administration Signals That Federal Inmates On Home Detention Will Return To Prison

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2021/07/20/biden-administration-signals-that-federal-inmates-on-home-detention-will-return-to-prison/?sh=27c1c2b279f5

The New York Times reported on Monday, citing officials, that President Joe Biden’s legal team has determined that thousands of federal inmates who are currently on home detention will be returned to prison a month after the state of emergency for the pandemic ends. Nobody knows when that will be.

Since April 2020, nearly 5,000 inmates in federal prison have been transferred from prison to home detention as part of a state of emergency established by then-Attorney General William Barr. The purpose of the initiative was to move more vulnerable inmates from the highly contagious prison environment to home. To be eligible, inmates had to meet certain security requirements, have good behavior in prison and not pose a threat to society.

This issue of returning inmates back to prison has been brewing for months. In October 2020 I wrote that some Assistant US Attorneys were nonchalantly tossing around the fact that those on home confinement were to return to eventually prison. After that the story went live, Family Against Mandatory Minimum’s president Kevin Ring contacted me to say that his contacts in the White House said that there was no intention of ordering inmates to return to prison and that they would be allowed to serve their remaining time of their prison sentence on home detention. Then, a few months after that in January 2021, just weeks before President Donald Trump’s presidential term was drawing to an end, his legal team issued a MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE GENERAL COUNSEL FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS on whether inmates would return to prison. There was outrage in the legal defense community and it was almost a foregone conclusion that a more liberal-minded Joe Biden would certainly intervene. Until today, the Biden administration has remained silent on the issue.

The position of both administrations seems odd when the program has been such a success. When BOP Director Michael Carvajal testified before both the House and Senate in March and April 2021, he stated that of the 20,000 on home detention (CARES Act plus those on home confinement because they were near the end of their prison term) there had only been 20 individuals returned to prison institutions as a result of violations. That’s a 99.9% success rate.

[brush]

1. Isn't Manafort one of those on home detention?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. I think so!

[Mr.Bill]

3. Trump pardoned Manafort.

Unless there are new charges, he is home free.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. oh my god, how soon we forget

[Hugh_Lebowski]

5. If they are deciding this way it's probably because they don't think the law allows otherwise

People were sentenced, and there's, like, a whole system we have here.

It's one thing to let them move home in an emergency situation due to a pandemic, it's another to just unilaterally basically say their sentence doesn't apply ... outside the emergency.

My guess, anyway.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Biden can commute their sentences under the CARES act.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. True, but that didn't seem to be what was being discussed as I interpreted the OP (nt)

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. The article at the link continues:

The National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys (NACDL) issued a statement from its President Christopher W. Adams, “There is absolutely nothing standing in the way of President Biden commuting the sentences of the approximately 4,000 individuals in CARES Act home confinement. The President should act with all deliberate speed to ensure that these individuals are not removed from their homes and communities in the middle of their re-entry process. While granting clemency to these individuals by commuting their sentences won’t change the fact that the United States is the world’s leading incarcerator, it would be a powerful signal that the administration is prioritizing criminal legal system reform, second chances, and the importance of a robust executive clemency power."

(snip)

U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a statement on the matter stating, “Individuals on CARES Act home confinement have posed no threat, and are already reintegrating into society, reconnecting with their families, and contributing to our economy. I have repeatedly urged the Department of Justice to rescind a Trump-era legal opinion that would needlessly force thousands to return to prison. If this opinion is not withdrawn, the Biden Administration must use other legal tools – like compassionate release and clemency – to ensure that no inmate who has successfully transitioned to home confinement is returned to prison.”

[Hugh_Lebowski]

9. That sounds right ... what I meant was if they're sentenced to prison, they're sentenced to prison

You can't just say 'no they get to serve at home' w/o an emergency.

But yes, POTUS could just commute their sentences.

[leftstreet]

10. Did private prison contractors lose $$ with less headcount?

I don't know

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. Biden said he would phase out contracting with private prisons for federal prisoners.

Prisons are money-making hellholes no matter who's running them or who's paying for bed space, though.

[leftstreet]

12. Good

that's good news