April 1, 2021–Due Process Institute joined a bipartisan coalition calling for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to rescind a legal memo forcing the return of people serving their sentences on home confinement to federal prison. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress enacted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) which allowed elderly, medically vulnerable, and low public safety risk individuals to be transferred to home confinement. However, the DOJ’s recent legal memo states the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) must re-incarcerate everyone on CARES Act home confinement at the end of the covered emergency period if they do not otherwise qualify for it.
Adhering to this memo would be devastating for thousands of individuals who have re-established themselves in their communities, have a negative effect on public safety, and exact an enormous human cost. It would also be unsupported by law as the CARES Act neither requires nor permits the BOP to return individuals transferred to home confinement to prison absent a violation of their conditions. Allowing those on home confinement to remain on home confinement is an important step to address the toll of over-incarceration and the need to reduce the size of the federal prison population.